Rarely has the phrase ''man of the world'' been more aptly applied than to the protean photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, the subject of a handsome and large -- though surely not anywhere near large enough -- retrospective opening at the Museum of Modern Art on Sunday. For much of his long career as a photojournalist, which began in the 1930s and...
In the middle of December two trailer trucks left New York City bound for Austin, Tex., packed with a precious and unusual cargo: the entire collection of pictures amassed over more than half a century by the Magnum photo cooperative, whose members have been among the world's most distinguished photojournalists. It is one of the most important...

There is a civil contract implied by photographs. An Israeli writer, Ariella Azoulay, published a book making that point. Henri Cartier-Bresson made it too. He described shooting pictures of people as a ''sort of violation,'' adding, ''if sensitivity is lacking, there can be something barbaric about it.'' There can be, of course, and not just when...