“Here in Palm Beach you don’t express your joy—and you don’t like publicity,” Henri Cartier-Bresson noted upon one of his first trips to the town in the 1950s. In 1958, the legendary photographer was hired by Life magazine to document its rivaled decadence, along with of Miami. In addition to producing a portfolio of artful documentary photographs, Cartier-Bresson made candid field notes about his time in Florida.
In an exclusive preview from PALMER Vol. 2, look back at Cartier-Bresson’s project, and revisit a bygone era of south Florida.
-
- “What a big difference from Miami in this card room off the main lobby of The Breakers hotel at Palm Beach. There is utmost silence and the atmosphere of generations who have been here, as in Cannes. There is more time and less haste than in Miami.”
-
- “It takes a little time to learn to sit like this behind a chauffeur in a limousine. The ladies were so dignified that they reminded me of the British royal family. Here in Palm Beach you don’t express your joy—and you don’t like publicity.”
-
- “When you go to Miami you feel surprised at the exuberance shown even by ladies on a stroll. Soon you are not surprised.”
-
- “I took this picture in front of the sedate Breakers hotel because it was all so discrete and quiet. The scene had a flavor of its own, with the big black cars, the hotel policeman talking with everyone, the golf, the monsieur and madame in a leisurely atmosphere.”
-
- “This private home is part of Palm Beach’s neo-Spanish tradition. Here they don’t look to the minute—they can dream of the past.”
-
- “For charity, these costumed ladies are about to perform in the Palm Beach Follies. Their satire went: ‘Everything’s going to be much worse next year.’ They have the poise which permits them to appear like this; they can wear fancy dress and feel natural.”
Check out the full story in PALMER Vol. 2, available for purchase now.
