Henri Cartier-Bresson was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940. After two unsuccessful attempts, he managed to escape in February 1943. Meanwhile, officials at MoMA in New York, thinking that the photographer had disappeared, began preparing a “posthumous” exhibition of his work. When he reappeared, he was delighted to learn that this exhibition would still take place. HCB decided to review all his work and choose for himself everything that “fitted”. He selected and printed more than 300 images, often unpublished, then embarked for New York in April 1946, the prints in his suitcase. Upon his arrival, he bought a large album – a “scrap book” – in which he pasted all his images to show them at MoMA. The exhibition was inaugurated on February 4, 1947, just before the creation of Magnum.