'In order to give meaning to the world, you have to be involved with what you see. That demands concentration, feeling, a disciplined mind and spatial insight.' Those are the words of Henri Cartier-Bresson, without doubt one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. His photographs, although made from a journalistic perspective, have the specific gravity of art. Whether they are of people, cities or landscapes, Cartier-Bresson always seeks the 'decisive moment' - the fraction of a second in which the essence of the event becomes visible. It gives his photographs a universal appeal.

Cartier-Bresson was among the founders of Magnum in 1947, and has photographed on every continent. He was in India during the decolonisation and in China when Mao Tse-tung assumed power. In 1954 he was the first foreign photographer allowed into the USSR. At the end of the 1960s Cartier-Bresson (b. 1908) laid aside his Leica to again concentrate on the passion of his youth: painting and drawing.

The Mexican photographs which are to be seen at Noorderlicht were made during two trips, the first in 1934, when he was still at the beginning of his career, and the second in 1964.