Belgian-born Martine Franck ( 1938-2012) was Henri Cartier-Bresson's widow, who passed away on 16 August 2012. Her show was hugely successful, attracting over 25,000 visitors and will end soon. Martine Franck's retrospective took place in an innovative exhibition area on the ground floor. It offers multiple opportunities to configurate the space into different sections through the use of sliding walls, completed by a state of the art system of heating or cooling, to guarantee correct conservation of prints and the comfort of visitors.

The first show, 'Guy Tillem, Museum of the Revolution', is curated by the artistic director of the foundation, Agnès Sire. South African Guy Tillem won the 2017 HCB award sponsored by Hermès for his work in Africa. Tillem's images document the decolonisation process in major African capital cities which led to the post-colonisation epoch, whether influenced by socialist principles, budding African nationalism or capitalist tendencies.

Guy Tillem was born in Johannesburg in 1962 and is based in Vermaaklikheld in South Africa. He began his photographic career in 1986 and began traveling from Johannesburg to Durban, Maputo, Beira, Harare, Nairobi, Kempala, Addis-Abeba, Luanda, Accra, Dakar and Dar-Es-Salam, while, documenting social movements and modern habitat. Tillem has won many awards, besides working for local and foreign press, and for various news agencies like Afrapix, Reuters and most recently, Agence France Presse.

The second show is devoted to the early work of Henri Cartier-Bresson (born in 1908) in France between 1926 and 1938, revealing his spontaneous and care-free nature, inspired by surrealist literature and artists, as well his drawing skills. Cartier-Bresson was in the process of developing a distinctive style and approach to photography, seizing the instant and capturing it on black and white film. He experimented with his new light-weight Leica camera that enabled him to remain unobstrusive and move rapidly, while chasing the objects of his visual interest. Aude Raimbault, head of the pictorial archives of the foundation, curated and assembled the relevant choice of images, based on her long experience in the matter.

Cartier-Bresson ventured into the field of moving images becoming one of Jean Renoir's assistants as well an occasional actor. On the threshhold of his photo-journalistic career, Cartier-Bresson possessed an insatiable curiosity about the evolution of society, defending human rights and artistic talent. Later he gathered experience in making documentary films.

The fiery, yet timid, photographer famously declared that : "La photographie se situe à mi-chemin entre le jeu du pickpocket et celui du funambule", (approximately translated: 'photography is situated half-way between the game of a pick-pocket and that of a tight-rope walker.)

At the inauguration of the new building complex that houses the foundation, comprising archives and a library plus other facilities, the first installment of 'Pearls of Archives', a wall display of iconic images in Henri Cartier-Bresson's career drew much attention. The second installment of the series of seven, is due to be shown on panels at entrance hall, on February 26 thanks to the support of the Gutenberg Agency.

There are also a series of talks and discussions which take place at the Foundation, the three exhibitions will run until 2 June 2019.