Moscow

1929–1930

Harry Crosby gives him his first camera

His squadron commander put him under house arrest for hunting without a licence, and the American expatriate Harry Crosby, who had him released into his custody for a few days, gave him his first camera; they took and printed pictures at Crosby’s home, Le Moulin du Soleil, in Ermenonville.

1931–1932

Munkácsi’s photograph, a Leica and the choice of photography

Recovering in Marseille, he saw Martin Munkácsi’s photograph “Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika” and “suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant”; he gave up painting and bought a Leica with a 50 mm lens, darkening its shiny parts to stay unnoticed.

c. 1943

The third escape succeeds: a farm in Touraine

He twice tried to escape the camp and failed, and was punished with solitary confinement; the third attempt succeeded — he hid on a farm in Touraine and obtained false papers that let him travel in France.

early 1947

Magnum Photos is founded

In early 1947, with Robert Capa, David Seymour, William Vandivert and George Rodger, he founded Magnum — a cooperative picture agency owned by its members; he was assigned India and China, and later also travelled to Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan, Cuba, Canada and the USSR.

1952

The book “The Decisive Moment”

His book “Images à la sauvette” was published, titled “The Decisive Moment” in English: 126 photographs from East and West, a cover drawn by Henri Matisse and a 4,500-word philosophical preface taking as its keynote Cardinal de Retz: “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment”.

1968

Turning away from photography, back to drawing

In 1968 he began to turn away from photography and return to his passion for drawing and painting; he admitted that perhaps he had said all he could through photography.