Cartier-Bresson photos from Teriade collection on show in Lesvos

The friendship and professional relationship between the acclaimed Lesvos-born art collector Teriade (Stratis Eleftheriadis) and celebrated French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson is the focus of "The Decisive Moment," an exhibition on display through September 5 at the Teriade Museum in the village of Varia on the southeast Aegean island.

The son of a wealthy family, Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) studied painting and the work of the great painters in Paris, where he also rubbed elbows with almost every great personage of the arts and letters. The exhibition showcases 43 original large-scale photographs that were part of Teriade's collection, and some of which are included in the seminal collection "Images a la Sauvette," first published by Verve in 1952.

Most, however, were taken when Cartier-Bresson was working for the Magnum photo agency during two visits to Greece,...