IMPORTANT UPDATE, PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: I visited the Art Institute last week and was very impressed with the Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB) exhibit. It is more vast than photography of France; I consider it literally an intimate archive of the Post-World War II era across continents. HCB got around the world in a huge way and he had access to places that were closed off to most Western photographers at the time, notably Red China and Soviet Russia. Now, here is some important information you need to know about September 30th. The Art Institute is considering making changes to its free ticket policy. I was told by the Art Institute staff that we would be safe with free tickets on September 30th. See this link. If, however, the Art Institute makes any changes, I will update this Meetup ASAP and also update my Twitter account, @ChicagoMeetup. In addition, when I visited, there was a line (queue) going into the Art Institute that lasted 10 minutes, and after you entered, you had to get tickets from the ticketing booths on the left. I am told that I can just get as many tickets as I want, so I will get to the Art Institute by 5:30 PM and ask for tickets for the entire group. Most likely, you can bypass the line and meet me at the rendezvous point, but again, check my Twitter account or call me at [masked] (Google Voice number). Lastly, we have a large group signed up, so I will likely break up the group and ask Assistant Organizers to "lead" smaller groups so that 20 people are not crowded around one photograph. I will also stay at the rendezvous point until 6:15 PM to accommodate late attendees.

Due to summer's competing activities, I have pushed back organizing this particular Meetup, but time is running out on the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit at the Art Institute and this needs to get done. So, on Thursday, September 30th, the Creative Social Club will be having its third installment of our Art Museum Weeknights Series, by which we take advantage of certain free weeknights at Chicago's outstanding art museums. Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century is scheduled to close three days later so this will be our last opportunity to organize a free group visit to this high-profile exhibit.

MoMA, from which this exhibit originates, describes Cartier-Bresson and the exhibit: "Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is one of the most original, accomplished, influential, and beloved figures in the history of photography. His inventive work of the early 1930s helped define the creative potential of modern photography, and his uncanny ability to capture life on the run made his work synonymous with “the decisive moment”—the title of his first major book. After World War II (most of which he spent as a prisoner of war) and his first museum show (at MoMA in 1947), he joined Robert Capa and others in founding the Magnum photo agency, which enabled photojournalists to reach a broad audience through magazines such as Life while retaining control over their work. In the decade following the war, Cartier-Bresson produced major bodies of photographic reportage on India and Indonesia at the time of independence, China during the revolution, the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death, the United States during the postwar boom, and Europe as its old cultures confronted modern realities. For more than twenty-five years, he was the keenest observer of the global theater of human affairs—and one of the great portraitists of the twentieth century. MoMA’s retrospective, the first in the United States in three decades, surveys Cartier-Bresson’s entire career, with a presentation of about three hundred photographs, mostly arranged thematically and supplemented with periodicals and books."

As with previous Art Institute visits, we will meet at the bench next to the MAIN LOBBY ENTRANCE INTO THE MAIN MUSEUM SHOP; see http://bit.ly/9VWzM9.... The Museum Shop is to your right as you enter The Art Institute from Michigan Avenue. Be there on time as the group will leave for the exhibit at 6 PM. You will have to look for the group at "Regenstein West" in the Art Institute or call me through the Creative Social Club Google Voice number at [masked] if you miss us.

Since several regulars have RSVPed "Yes", there is a good chance that we will go for drinks afterward. By good chance, I mean 99.99% probability.