Beschreibung:

Gelatin silver print, printed in the late 1950s / early 1960s 17 x 24,6 cm Photographer's “Mention obligatoire” stamp, copyright stamp and extensive description in French in ink on the reverse Cartier-Bresson took the most definitive photographs of the Communist takeover of China and the birth of the People’s Republic. Since July 1946, China has been torn apart by civil war between the Communist forces of Mao Tse-Tung and the Nationalist Kuomintang forces of General Tchang Kai Chek. With the approach of the Communist victory, the value of paper money plummeted. The Kuomintang decided to distribute 40 grams of gold per person. A gold rush started in December 1948. The image shows Shanghai citizens at a government bank exchanging paper money for gold. The police only made a gesture toward maintaining order. Ten people were crushed to death. The iconic shot, present as early print from around 1960, is a lasting symbol of crowds panicked by the change of regime. Cartier-Bresson included it in his very first photo book The Decisive Moment in 1952. LITERATURE Henri Cartier-Bresson Images à la sauvette, Verve 1952, p. 109; Henri Cartier-Bresson The Decisive Moment, Paris 1952, p. 109-110; Bonnefoy, Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographe, Delpire 1979, p.69; Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson L'art sans art, Flammarion 1995, p.174; De qui s'agit-il ? Henri Cartier-Bresson Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallimard 2003, p.309; Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson Un siècle moderne, The Museum of Modern Art/Hazan, 2010, p.113.