HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON, who died last year, is perhaps the greatest photographer of all time, and
a major survey of his work is due to open this month. Pierre Assouline, his friend and biographer, talks about the man he
grew to know intimately over the last ten years of his life. Interview: Ruth Hedges
l‘or an intcry iew with my maga/ine. Linc
1 had been in touch with him years bel‘ore because i wanted to meet him. but he neyer wanted to. liach time he turned me down. though. He called me and we used to talk on the phone. and then once he said. "OK. let's go." We met each other and yery quickly became l'ricnds. We didn't stop meeting each other and talking to each other and trayelling until his death. So we were in touch intimater
‘ I lirst met ('artier—Hresson in I‘M-l. It was
68 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE -'- ' ‘ I'm; L of,
for ten years. I don't know why we got on so
well. it‘s like love. Friendship is like love —- it
you can explain it it's not what it is. I cannot explain. There's a lirench philosopher. Montaigne. who said about friendship. "Because it was him. becatise it was me." ‘\\'hen we met at that first interview. he didn‘t want me to tape anything. He said we can talk to each other but you can‘t tape. you can’t even write. Then the interview was published. He was yery pleased with it and
afterwards we became friends. Alter two or three years i said. “I‘d like to write your biography." and he said. “You know I hate that." but agreed. So for seyen years he knew that I was writing a biography. We spent a lot of time together. he came to my home and played with my children. and sometimes something he’d say was very special. I used to tell him. “I'm going to write that in my book. it is very important r answer me.” but he didn‘t like to be precise. It was impossible to talk