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HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON AND HEINZ HELD / PEOPLE WITH PICTURES

The Museum Ludwig (Köln, Germany) holds an outstanding collection of photographs encompassing some 70,000 works from the beginning of photography in the nineteenth century to the present. From March 24th, parts of the Photographic Collection will be showcased in a special Photography Room within the permanent collection of the Ludwig Museum in an effort to gradually present the collection. The room provides the Museum Ludwig with a permanent space dedicated to photography. 

“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” is the title of the first presentation, which will be on view until August 20. The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) and the Cologne-based photographer Heinz Held (1918–1990) met several times: In 1956, when Cartier-Bresson traveled to Cologne, where his pictures were shown at the photokina fair, Heinz Held not only assisted in installing the exhibition but also photographed it. It is likely that they also met at the house of their mutual friend L. Fritz Gruber, the founder and head of the photokina exhibitions. We do not know what they talked about, but they shared a similar approach to photography: using a small camera, strolling around unnoticed, and waiting for the moment when something unexpected, touching, or funny would happen—usually unnoticed by the persons photographed. Cartier-Bresson called this the “decisive moment.”

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig

"Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures" The Museum Ludwig.

“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig.

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig.

"Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures" The Museum Ludwig.

“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig.

In 1967 the Kunsthalle Köln organized a solo exhibition of Cartier-Bresson’s work. The corpus of around two hundred photographs mounted on wooden panels is now part of the Museum Ludwig’s Photographic Collection and was last shown in its entirety on the occasion of Cartier-Bresson’s death in 2004. The estate of Heinz Held is now also part of the Museum Ludwig and currently the focus of research. Embracing the spectrum of both their oeuvres, this exhibition presents images of people in museums and cities. The paintings, sculptures, posters, or street signs in these images often enter into a dialogue with their viewers or passersby. Cartier-Bresson identified the surreal potential of photography in this sort of correspondence, and Heinz Held characterized it as a “magic” that “stirs the heart.” The exhibition can be visited until August 20, 2017.

Foto Lab space. "Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures" The Museum Ludwig.

Foto Lab space. “Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig.

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig

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Foto Lab space. “Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig.

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Foto Lab space. “Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig.

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Foto Lab space. “Henri Cartier-Bresson and Heinz Held: People with Pictures” The Museum Ludwig.

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