Cartier-Bresson shot for Life, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazines, and his work inspired generations of photographers. Cartier-Bresson became a French national treasure, though he was famously averse to having his own picture taken or to giving interviews.
“He was perhaps the greatest photographer of the 20th century,” said John Morris, who first met Cartier-Bresson at the door of Paris’ Hotel Scribe five days after the Germans left the city at the end of World War II.
More here from CNN. And here is the obituary from the NY Times that Asad pointed out in his comment on this post.