Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004), born in Canteloup, Seine et Marne, France, had been a painter before distinguishing himself as a photojournalist. As a founding member of Magnum, Cartier-Bresson is renowned for his humane, spontaneous photographs of 20th-century individuals and events that helped establish photojournalism as an art form. He believes that there is a specific moment in each of life's episodes in which all the elements come into alignment to reveal all there is to tell about a single moment. His theory that photography can capture the meaning beneath outward appearance in instants of extraordinary clarity is perhaps best expressed in his book The Decisive Moment (1952).