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New edition: The Europeans / Les Européens
New edition: The Europeans / Les Européens
Henri Cartier-Bresson
January 19, 2026
Athens, Greece 1953
When the photo book first appeared in 1955, the Leica photographer and co-founder of the Magnum Photo agency was at the first high point of his career. That same year, he was honoured at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in the Pavillon de Marsan of the Louvre, with a great retrospective including around 400 photographs. The exhibition, held at the most renowned art venue in Paris, not only stood for the legitimisation of photography, but also as the ultimate recognition of the photographer (1908-2004) – while he was still alive. In addition to the new photo book, five other publications by the photographer were on the book market at the same time: The Decisive Moment (Images à la sauvette), also published by Tériade had appeared with great success three years earlier; Les Danses à Bali (1954), D’une Chine à l’autre (1954) and Moscou (1955) published by Robert Delpire, were also available.
The Europeans / Les Européens presents 114 photographs taken between 1950 and 1955. It was a time when Cartier-Bresson was very busy travelling in Europe, mostly on assignment for one magazine or another. The photographer travelled to Italy for Harper’s Bazaar (1951, 1952), Life (1952, 1953) and Holiday (1953), to Germany for Picture Post (1953) and Fortune (1954), and to England for Illustrated (1951) and Point de vue (1953). In 1954, his exceptional report on the USSR was published in, among others, Life, Paris Match and Picture Post. His pictures from Greece, Spain, Ireland, France, Switzerland and Austria appeared in numerous other magazines. Consequently, it is no coincidence that three fifths of the motifs are in vertical format, as Cartier-Bresson always conceptualised for individual pages or covers. However, the photo book is far more than just a side product of this magazine work. To this day, it is a unique visual testimony to the atmosphere and the state of Europe's reconstruction following the war. For Cartier-Bresson, the focus was on people, whom he photographed time and again in everyday situations, whether at work or during free time. He was only marginally interested in well-known sights: they often served as mere backdrop, or disappear into blurriness. The book did not claim to provide a complete inventory, but to this day it offers a vivid portrait of the inhabitants of a continent undergoing profound change.
As happened with The Decisive Moment in 2024, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson is now offering a new edition of The Europeans/ Les Européens in a smaller, handier format. Seventy years after it was first published, it offers a unique opportunity to rediscover this important segment of Cartier-Bresson's oeuvre, enhanced with a text by photo historian Clément Chéroux, who place the work within its historic and artistic context.
Ulrich RüterThe Europeans / Les Européens presents 114 photographs taken between 1950 and 1955. It was a time when Cartier-Bresson was very busy travelling in Europe, mostly on assignment for one magazine or another. The photographer travelled to Italy for Harper’s Bazaar (1951, 1952), Life (1952, 1953) and Holiday (1953), to Germany for Picture Post (1953) and Fortune (1954), and to England for Illustrated (1951) and Point de vue (1953). In 1954, his exceptional report on the USSR was published in, among others, Life, Paris Match and Picture Post. His pictures from Greece, Spain, Ireland, France, Switzerland and Austria appeared in numerous other magazines. Consequently, it is no coincidence that three fifths of the motifs are in vertical format, as Cartier-Bresson always conceptualised for individual pages or covers. However, the photo book is far more than just a side product of this magazine work. To this day, it is a unique visual testimony to the atmosphere and the state of Europe's reconstruction following the war. For Cartier-Bresson, the focus was on people, whom he photographed time and again in everyday situations, whether at work or during free time. He was only marginally interested in well-known sights: they often served as mere backdrop, or disappear into blurriness. The book did not claim to provide a complete inventory, but to this day it offers a vivid portrait of the inhabitants of a continent undergoing profound change.
As happened with The Decisive Moment in 2024, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson is now offering a new edition of The Europeans/ Les Européens in a smaller, handier format. Seventy years after it was first published, it offers a unique opportunity to rediscover this important segment of Cartier-Bresson's oeuvre, enhanced with a text by photo historian Clément Chéroux, who place the work within its historic and artistic context.
All photos: © Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Exhibition+-
To mark the new edition, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson is also presenting an exhibition curated by Clément Chéroux, director of the foundation, entitled The Europeans, featuring the most important pieces from the book. It is on display in Paris from January 28 to May 3, 2026.
The Europeans/Les Européens+-
156 pages, 114 black and white images
24 x 17.7 cm
Fondation Cartier-Bresson
Editions in English and French
Book cover designed by Joan Miró
Henri Cartier-Bresson+-
He is one of the most famous Leica photographers of the 20th century: As a photojournalist, a freelance photographer and a sensitive portraitist, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) produced timeless compositions, and was particularly influential and style-defining thanks to his feel for the decisive moment. The Frenchman's early work was inspired by surrealism and the New Vision of the 1920s, before he later travelled the world as a photojournalist and founder of the legendary Magnum Photos Agency. His motifs of spontaneous encounters and situations, and his eye for the everyday life of his contemporaries, have had an important impact on subsequent generations. More
Athens, Greece 1953
Athens, Greece 1953
Hamburg, Germany 1952
Funeral of George VI., February 15, 1952, Trafalgar Square, London, England
Entracte, Glyndebourne, England 1953
Venice, Italy 1953
San Remo, Italy, 1953
Villaggio Timmari, close to Matera, Italy 1951