View Full Version : Contacts - Henri Cartier Bresson
A friend of me, that doesn't speak French himself, passed me a French documentary on HCB. The movie goes through his contact sheets, while HCB talks and explains his photography. It's very technical, but gives a great insight into his way of shooting.
It showed me more than anything else that the best photographers are first artists, and then techies. With a little help from my friends, I translated and subtitled the documentary in English. I hope you people find the docu as interesting as me.
62Mb film, Xvid codec
http://photography.mayulive.com/priv/hcb/hcb.jpg (http://photography.mayulive.com/priv/hcb/Contacts_Henri_Cartier-Bresson_subbed.avi)[/quote]
Roger Hicks
01-24-2008, 11:17
Hmmmm...
Frances (my wife) talked to HCB's printer at Arles one year a while back. And I've always been a great admirer of his.
You have to remember that HCB was
A A rich kid who didn't need to earn a living
B French, and therefore given to intellectualization
C A genius
so I'd not put too much emphasis on believing the way he explains things.
Cheers,
R.
Roger, that may be the most concise summary of M.HC-B ever, and not inaccurate in any way !
Thank you for posting - I will watch the clip with interest and try to use my rusty french too. I hope there are no copyright problems with the film btw.
mike kim
01-24-2008, 11:49
I have this on dvd. It's part of a compilation called Contacts.1 (dvd 1 of 2) about the artistic processes of various famous photojournalists: Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Klein, Raymond Depardon, Mario Giacomelli, Josef Koudelka, Robert Doisneau, Edouard Boubat, Elliott Erwitt, Marc Riboud, Leonard Freed, Helmut Newton, Don McCullin.
Unfortunately, it's dubbed instead of subtitled so I never quite enjoyed HCB's own talking since I don't know french. Thanks for sharing!
philhirn
01-24-2008, 13:02
thanks a lot for sharing
sinetsin
01-24-2008, 13:08
I'm downloading the whole serie from a p2p program...is in french too..but with my catalan..i expect understand somthing;)
There're another documentary of him, called l'espgne vivra, anyone seen it?
Unfortunately, it's dubbed instead of subtitled so I never quite enjoyed HCB's own talking since I don't know french. Thanks for sharing!
Ah. It was likely there was some kind of translation around, but now I know. It's legal to freely share this fragment for educational uses, please don't let this derail the thread. Translating this was as well fun as it was an exercising my french
too bad the Contacts DVD is dubbed, I hate dubs violently. I'll see if I can get the DVD's, its plenty interesting. I've seen parts of a one-hour TV interview with HCB, but it was in American style, hyped and not-in depth. HCB reallly didn't feel at ease, who looked more like a senile old man.
Roger Hicks
01-24-2008, 14:01
But Roger, please, just because the man is "French, and therefore given to intellectualization" is no reason to "not put too much emphasis on believing the way he explains things."
Isn't that rather conceited of you?
No. I listed three reasons, to be read jointly, not severally. Any one is not a reason to be suspicious. All three taken together -- another matter.
Cheers,
R.
Roger, I can't explain it as sussunctly as you but I too feel HCB was talking more rubbish than truth when he spoke of how he came to his photos. It's often too hard to explain properly and truthfully why we do things. We all do it, so why not HCB. And in his case, the world believed him, so why not stick with it? :)
crawdiddy
01-24-2008, 14:34
I've seen the whole series of "Contacts" which was aired on French TV a long time ago, all very educational.
But Roger, please, just because the man is "French, and therefore given to intellectualization" is no reason to "not put too much emphasis on believing the way he explains things."
Isn't that rather conceited of you?
I think most great artists are not the best sources for analysis of their works or philosophy. That's a bit counterintuitive, and it's not to say their self-analysis isn't interesting. But it's usually just one of the puzzle pieces. They're usually so close to it they can't really explain it.
Thank you, Teus, for the very interesting documentary. Just two nits to pick, one is that I think--I know very little French--that at some point visage (face) was translated as "vision", and that the name of the photographer mentioned by HCB was Halsman, rather than "Balseman" (Philippe Halsman, a portrait photographer quite famous in the 50s). Again, these are just a couple of nits, and I'm thankful for the documentary and for your great job with the subtitles--not an easy thing to do. Re Roger Hicks's comments, I only agree with #3: the man was a genius. I fail to see the relevance of #1, the rather dismissive "A rich kid who did not need to earn a living", particularly since, from what I know of HCB's life, he certainly did not live it like a rentier, quite the opposite. As for #2, you do not have to be French to intellectualize, which, according to Webster, means "to give intellectual or rational form or content to". In this specific instance, HCB tried to explain the act of photographic creation, I think pretty successfully. His defining photography as a craft stands in refreshing contrast to those photographers, such as the author of a wretched article in The Luminous Landscape, recently discussed in this forum, who use the words "art" and "artist" with no discrimination whatsoever.
Thanks Teus. That was great.
Al Kaplan
01-24-2008, 18:22
A lot of "rich kids" were successful as photographers and writers, not so much for their talents as for the fact that they attended the same prep schools and universities as the editors of the magazines or the art directors at the ad agencies, as did their fathers before them. I think that HCB had more talent than most but he also had the money to wander the streets and shoot film at will. Financial security can be liberating.
oh I forgot: thanks Teus for the thread :-)
Oh Teus, man thank you so much for sharing this, what an eye opener.
Now I would like to share my thoughts.
If people still believe in the decisive moment after watching that video, then..... I mean come on, isn't that obvious that the guy was just pressing his button times and times again? It looks like he cained number of frames on the same subject, like the rest of us, and one of them stood out.
This has to be the best documentary on the decisive moment =)
Marc-A. Exactement. The pontifical opinions of French character/perspective/whatever always amuse me.
And as I've said before, do not believe him when he says that photography was a minor activity for him, or that he would have prefered to paint ... etc. Bull****. He spent his life photographying, he founded Magnum, he was proud of being honoured as the most talented photographer (was he?) : that's facts, not words.
I couldn't agree more. HCB had an extraordinary 'eye' as a photographer, even if he didn't capture quite as many 'decisive moments' as the myths suggest, but as a painter he was amateurish and unoriginal. He does seem to have had a talent for pretentious bullsh1t but fortunately this was more than outweighed by his talent as a photographer.
Roger Hicks
01-25-2008, 01:53
A lot of "rich kids" were successful as photographers and writers . . . I think that HCB had more talent than most but he also had the money to wander the streets and shoot film at will. Financial security can be liberating.
Dear Al,
That was indeed precisely my point.
As for Gallic intellectualization, having lived in several countries, I am sure that the French have a much greater tolerance of intellectualization than most. Intellectualization is not merely a product of intellect and education, but also of culture.
I find it amusing that something I would see as a compliment to French culture is being taken as the opposite.
Cheers,
R.
I find it amusing that something I would see as a compliment to French culture is being taken as the opposite.
Well, Roger, you were pretty much saying in your point B that you don't believe a word of what he says because he's a French and they are given to intellectualization, so it's hardly surprising that it's not taken entirely as a compliment.
Back to my Knackwurst, Sauerkraut and mid-morning beer, with best regards from the humourless -
Philipp
kshapero
01-25-2008, 02:39
Hmmmm...
Frances (my wife) talked to HCB's printer at Arles one year a while back. And I've always been a great admirer of his.
You have to remember that HCB was
A A rich kid who didn't need to earn a living
B French, and therefore given to intellectualization
C A genius
so I'd not put too much emphasis on believing the way he explains things.
Cheers,
R.
Roger you burst my bubble. Got to go, my therapist waits.....:eek:
kshapero
01-25-2008, 02:48
BTW when rating myself, I'd go with:
A. Not a rich kid, but I was always told I was a snot nosed kid.
B. I got solid C's in High School French.
C. Genius, as in, " Ok, Genius, take out the garbage."
I am close, so close.
Kawabatnam
01-25-2008, 02:51
Dear Al,
That was indeed precisely my point.
As for Gallic intellectualization, having lived in several countries, I am sure that the French have a much greater tolerance of intellectualization than most. Intellectualization is not merely a product of intellect and education, but also of culture.
I find it amusing that something I would see as a compliment to French culture is being taken as the opposite.
Cheers,
R.
Oh well, compliment or not, if only it could be true... I would LOVE to see French people not only showing "tolerance of intellectualization" but practice, actual practice of intellectualization... in whatever field by the way, not only photography -and I do underline that I am not a teacher, nor an "intellectual" etc, I am mostly self-educated.
Anyway, Henri Cartier-Bresson (why "HCB", he's not a brand of beer or whatever?) is certainly great, though are Raymond Depardon's writings on photography (not at all technical, rather "sentimental") available in English? I appreciate a lot his way of "explaining" a rather general context-mood-environment, then you draw your own conclusion about a particular photograph.
I find it amusing that something I would see as a compliment to French culture is being taken as the opposite.
Dear Roger,
Don't misunderstand me. Compliments are good. But here what is at stake is the truth of an opinion which I believe wrong. I didn't take your statment badly, I just think it's wrong. That's all.
Bonne journée à toi,
Marc-A.
kshapero
01-25-2008, 03:39
I love it when Frenchmen get hot, But I am happily married to a Turkish girl.
I prefer when French "girls" get hot. But I am Basque.:D
Really. I've already told you that I find it puzzling. You'll have to explain me that.
So what does it mean to be French? And what does it mean to be Basque? Really I don't understand.
What don't you understand Marc?
I would try to explain.Pitxu.
I don't understand this sentence "I am Basque", especially coming from you (I've got some Basque friends, and I love the Basque region where I go every year).
Besides, I would like to understand what it means to be French and to be Basque.
I don't know if you understand why I feel uncomfortable with this. Maybe PM, I don't want to open this discussion here. well, I could PM you instead ;-)
Lovely movie, thank-you for posting it and translating it...cheers
Oh I didn't just like his work, but also his way of expressing himself, because he did seem to be quite direct. I mentioned quite a few time on this forum, another movie on him called "Just plain love".
Honestly, watching both of those movies is utterly contradictory....
I agree with what you said to a certain extent. Though he had a particular philosophy towards his pictures, style, whatever.
You might be able to spot this in what I write or not, but, as gay as it sounds I feel deeply cheated upon and manipulated after watching this documentary.
Ok the "decisive moment" thing wasn't quite stated by him, invented by the media instead, apparently he called it rather "image a la sauvette". Still he made it quite clear that he didn't like to crop, yet a lot of his pictures were cropped. He clearly spoke of a magic moment when taking a picture, criticized people who pressed the button times and times again without looking at what was happening in the finder, yet he did just that, pressed his button times and times again, burning number of frames on the same shot.
I don't quite get it. Did you seriously think before that he never took a failed shot? That he always hit on spot, like a sniper in bad war movie?
The guy ran through thousands and thousands of film rolls. There are only a few hundreds of his photos that are commonly thought as his legacy. Where did the rest go? :)
Doing a sequence as situation unfolds is very common technique. You still have to have eye to pick the scene to photograph in first place. You still have to nail the moment.
Oh and shall I mention that Bresson called himself an anarchist? What did he anarchised against exactly?
You don't "anarchise against", anarchy is not what you think it is.
I don't quite get it. Did you seriously think before that he never took a failed shot? That he always hit on spot, like a sniper in bad war movie?
The guy ran through thousands and thousands of film rolls. There are only a few hundreds of his photos that are commonly thought as his legacy. Where did the rest go? :)
Doing a sequence as situation unfolds is very common technique. You still have to have eye to pick the scene to photograph in first place. You still have to nail the moment.
Clearly not but I didn't think he would take half a roll on the same subject. How many times did I hear folks saying "I wonder if this guy ever took a bad shot" or "The difference between him the rest was that he could do it in 1 single shot" :rolleyes:
You don't "anarchise against", anarchy is not what you think it is.
How do you know how I know what I think anarchy is? And yes you can "anarchise", even though I just made up the term, against something as you wish, For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy
BTW when rating myself, I'd go with:
A. Not a rich kid, but I was always told I was a snot nosed kid.
B. I got solid C's in High School French.
C. Genius, as in, " Ok, Genius, take out the garbage."
I am close, so close.
...Funny!...
Al Kaplan
01-25-2008, 07:02
A lot of times you have to crank off a few frames to be sure the subject didn't blink. Sometimes you see the "magic moment", push the button, and then another "magic moment" appears. That isn't the time to ask yourself which "magic moment" is the better one. You shoot it.
When you're on asignment the name of the game is to always come back with a useable photo. Editors don't want somebody that comes back with the occasional great shot but can't consistantly produce useable pictures. HCB seemed able to fulfill those expectations. If there were times that he didn't we'll never find out about it. I doubt that we'll ever see a book titled "The Asignments HCB Screwed Up".
On another tack, he was shooting essays, not spot news on a deadline. Would he been able to function in situations where he had to get someplace, have just a few minutes of shooting time, and get the film back to the office in time to have finished prints by press time?
Clearly not but I didn't think he would take half a roll on the same subject. How many times did I hear folks saying "I wonder if this guy ever took a bad shot" or "The difference between him the rest was that he could do it in 1 single shot" :rolleyes:
I can see how one can arrive at such conclusion sure. It's just that HCB himself was more modest in claims. He insted mumbled something about "the mind, the eye and the heart combining into one" for capturing the moment, which sounds more like a line from Celene Dion song than something a Jedi-like, ultimate photographer supposed to say :)
How do you know how I know what I think anarchy is? And yes you can "anarchise", even though I just made up the term, against something as you wish, For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy
If you take anarchy in political and social sense your term just doesn't mean much, not any more than "communizing against" or "feudalizing against". That you made such a derivation suggests that you link anarchy more to terrorism and violent response than to theoretic work of Kropotkin and such. Hence my comment :)
Anarchy is an alternative (at least perceived so) to hierarchy found in most organizations. Magnum for instance was founded as grassroots effort to balance out the influence of dominant press organizations, weekly illustrated magazines of the time.
Well then,
One of the great misconceptions that oddly still continues to this day is the comparison of photography to painting.
Many even so-called photographers on the contemporary art scene still mistakenly compare it to painting as if it must be one brilliant masterpiece that is taken/captured.
I cannot stress too strongly the error in this. I have yet to find anyone, anywhere post their work in series in order to tell a story online. Never one time.
Sould you attend any fine photography atelier or school this is what is most stresed. I attended the Documenta at Kassel, German this year...great names from past and present. Humbling. However, perhaps we are touching more on art of photography than journalism, yet it still holds true to the strong misconception.
It is true (apparently) the he (like many) would shoot very selectively..but then again, so did most, especially by comparison to the present digital age. In short, quality over quantity.
HCB was an artist, without question. To criticise him is foolish, at best, ignorant. It is all good folks...and he is a big part of history to the medium and an important figure. Did he receive too much recognition compared to others, sure, perhaps, so were/are other artists in history..it is part of the game.
Yet he was always humble and remained genuine to the end. He had an original concept of what he wanted and voice, which is more than most out there.
He was the quintessential "zen" photographer and surrealist. Surrealism shined in no other form like photography.
It is brilliant and beautiful the concept of the moment, when one sees everthing come together in harmony before their eyes..yet it is rather passe these days and many (of us) are nostalgic revering these famous images as those who continue to paint in an old master style and not find their own truth and individuality.
I cannot recommend more highly the famous book by Susan Sontag "On Photography" for those genuinely studying and who wish to better understand photography.
What I have found out over time is that it's very important for Basques and Jews to make sure everyone know what they are.
I never understood why, though.
I can see how one can arrive at such conclusion sure. It's just that HCB himself was more modest in claims. He insted mumbled something about "the mind, the eye and the heart combining into one" for capturing the moment, which sounds more like a line from Celene Dion song than something a Jedi-like, ultimate photographer supposed to say :)
So since you admit that he mumbled about "the mind, the eye and the heart combining into one" for capturing the moment, please also consider the possibility that whether he sounded like Celine Dion or Obi One Kenobi is something that is entirely left to the person witnessing his comments. Indeed, what one might call home, another will call it hell.
If you take anarchy in political and social sense your term just doesn't mean much, not any more than "communizing against" or "feudalizing against". That you made such a derivation suggests that you link anarchy more to terrorism and violent response than to theoretic work of Kropotkin and such. Hence my comment :)
Anarchy is an alternative (at least perceived so) to hierarchy found in most organizations. Magnum for instance was founded as grassroots effort to balance out the influence of dominant press organizations, weekly illustrated magazines of the time.
I appreciate your view on that matter!
HCB = Hexachlorobenzene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hcb
Spider67
01-25-2008, 07:43
On intellectualization: Right now I encounter morfe and more people who are rather proud of all the things they don't know à la "HCB? Does one have to know him?"
Thanks for posting the link! And thanks Akiva for your self definition! Come on people all those questions what being Jewish, Basque or French means. Being a Bulgarian Viennese I don't understand that ;o9.
The problem with the phenomenon HCB is he was put in the Classics departement so that hge can be revered .....and ignored furthermore. Or do people really read all those complet Shakespeare edition they buy?
Well then,
One of the great misconceptions that oddly still continues to this day is the comparison of photography to painting.
Many even so-called photographers on the contemporary art scene still mistakenly compare it to painting as if it must be one brilliant masterpiece that is taken/captured.
I cannot stress too strongly the error in this. I have yet to find anyone, anywhere post their work in series in order to tell a story online. Never one time.
Sould you attend any fine photography atelier or school this is what is most stresed. I attended the Documenta at Kassel, German this year...great names from past and present. Humbling. However, perhaps we are touching more on art of photography than journalism, yet it still holds true to the strong misconception.
It is true (apparently) the he (like many) would shoot very selectively..but then again, so did most, especially by comparison to the present digital age. In short, quality over quantity.
HCB was an artist, without question. To criticise him is foolish, at best, ignorant. It is all good folks...and he is a big part of history to the medium and an important figure. Did he receive too much recognition compared to others, sure, perhaps, so were/are other artists in history..it is part of the game.
Yet he was always humble and remained genuine to the end. He had an original concept of what he wanted and voice, which is more than most out there.
He was the quintessential "zen" photographer and surrealist. Surrealism shined in no other form like photography.
It is brilliant and beautiful the concept of the moment, when one sees everthing come together in harmony before their eyes..yet it is rather passe these days and many (of us) are nostalgic revering these famous images as those who continue to paint in an old master style and not find their own truth and individuality.
I cannot recommend more highly the famous book by Susan Sontag "On Photography" for those genuinely studying and who wish to better understand photography.
I’m sorry but I must challenge that.
Photography influenced painters from the outset, and vice-versa, consider the photographic references in impressionist work particularly, and what were the Pictorialists trying to do exactly? and David Hockney with those photo-montages what is he doing?
Maybe you should attend school for another three years, get your degree, and then decide what others should think.
Roger Hicks
01-25-2008, 08:17
Well, Roger, you were pretty much saying in your point B that you don't believe a word of what he says because he's a French and they are given to intellectualization, so it's hardly surprising that it's not taken entirely as a compliment.
Back to my Knackwurst, Sauerkraut and mid-morning beer, with best regards from the humourless -
Philipp
Dear Philipp,
Not exactly.
What I was saying under that head was first, that intellectualization is not normally much of a guide to how/why a picture works or how/why it was taken, and second, that the French are much gven to intellectualization (it's one of the pleasures of living here).
If you take this with the other two heads (which some people seem singularly unwilling to do), I stand completely by what I said.
1 He was a rich kid who didn't have to work, which gave him considerable freedom both to shoot and to intellectualize (consider his early views on surrealism, which is a wonderful art form but can hardly be parodied, because one of its foundations is parody)
2 As explained above (French/intellectualizing)
3 He was a genius. Geniuses' explanations do not always make much sense to non-geniuses, among whom I normally count myself.
Cheers,
R.
Roger Hicks
01-25-2008, 08:38
Roger Hicks. Please clear this up as you have me somewhat confused. To me, you seem to be saying that the man is "not to be believed" (a liar?) because he is "a rich kid", "French", and a "genius".
Please explain how you see this as a "compliment".
Pitxu.
You are sometimes excessively easy to confuse.
I did not say that HCB as a man was/is not to be believed, so your basic premise is completely wrong. What I said was that his explanation (and by clear implication, his explanation in this case) might well be of limited value.
The compliment referred to what I perceive as the fondness or at least tolerance of the French for intellectualization, as compared with the resolute anti-intellectualism sometimes found elsewhere. This is nothing to do with calling anyone a liar.
So I don't actually need to explain anything. I apologize if you managed to mis-read what I wrote; I could perhaps have made myself clearer. But your skin appears to have been unusually thin of late, and now you are latching on perceived (but non-existent) insults to others in order to sustain your seemingly constant simmering anger. I apologize if this seems a little blunt but there does seem to have been an underlying hostility in much that you have posted lately, including (I seem to recall -- I never read it to the end) an I QUIT thread.
Cheers,
R.
Roger Hicks
01-25-2008, 08:42
Dear Roger,
Don't misunderstand me. Compliments are good. But here what is at stake is the truth of an opinion which I believe wrong. I didn't take your statment badly, I just think it's wrong. That's all.
Bonne journée à toi,
Marc-A.
Dear Marc-A.
Well, perhaps we might reverse the argument, and contrast the French with those who are resolutely (and often proudly and even aggressively) anti-intellectual. I just seem to have met far fewer of those in France than elsewhere. Your mileage has, presumably, varied.
Cheers,
R.
Steve Litt
01-25-2008, 08:48
If anyone in the UK is interested in seeing some of Henri Cartier Bressons Photographs.There is an exhibition of his work between 1932 and 1946 at The National Media Museum situated in Bradford West Yorkshire from the 7th march to 1st June.
Regards
Steve
If anyone in the UK is interested in seeing some of Henri Cartier Bressons Photographs.There is an exhibition of his work between 1932 and 1946 at The National Media Museum situated in Bradford West Yorkshire from the 7th march to 1st June.
Regards
Steve
Thanks Steve, I only live about 10 miles from there but often miss important exhibitions, I’ll put that one in the diary
regards
J J Kapsberger
01-25-2008, 10:29
That was Glenn Gould playing the Bach invention heard at the end of the video.
Morca007
01-25-2008, 11:23
Or do people really read all those complet Shakespeare edition they buy?
Why on earth would anyone buy a book they don't intend to read? :(
Thank you for the video, Teus.
Al Kaplan
01-25-2008, 11:36
People buy books they don't intend to read for the same reason that they buy cameras that they don't intend to use.
Well said Sparrow,
naturally here there is matter for a book or more and not for a few sentences.
Art History is a continuum. Let me stress some important examples.
Already Leonardo knew the camera oscura (Pinhole camera)
He liked soft light. He wrote a scientific text where, for example, he illustrates the RGB concept (!)
Caravaggio invented the decisive moment centuries before HCB. he liked direct lighting.
Since Leonardo many artist used more and more the camera. Vermeer used it and his treatment of light was so precise that I read a scientific paper where the radiosity model (a mathematical model to simulate a scene by computer) was validated reproducing a painting of Vermeer. Tissot used the camera and so many artists of his time. The impressionist exhibitions were held in the atelier of Nadar, which was a photographer.
One should study painting and photography together. There is a crossfertilization and reciprocal influence. Once HCB looking at a painting of the forgotten impressionist Caillebotte said: "who has stolen a photo of mine?
Caillebotte introduced in painting the concept of panoramic which glues togheter different view angles, almost century before photography did the same
There is unity in art and an accumulation of know how
Please use your own mind to re upraise what photography courses teach.
The misconception goes exactly the other way around
When I was inspired by the thread here, I got to see the movie "Just plain love" (subbed fortunately). I really enjoyed of watching this movie and HCB seemed to be simple, ordinary guy. I remember that he said in the movie that as photographer, to be famous is dangerous. Now I can see exactly what he meant when I look here at this thread.
I see nothing wrong with Roger's comments. Nothing of negativity there what I could sense.
Kaplan, it is right, it is called investments :) It is nice to see you here RFF btw :)
I couldn't watch it.
Something about loading a plug-in for Quicktime on my iBook here; and then I couldn't get the plug-in to work or even installed correctly.
Thank you, Teus, for the very interesting documentary. Just two nits to pick
ah, thank you for pointing it out. we were uncertain about this, but couldn't get it right.
I couldn't watch it.
Something about loading a plug-in for Quicktime on my iBook here; and then I couldn't get the plug-in to work or even installed correctly.
oh, you might try VLC or mplayer to watch it.
Bobfrance
01-28-2008, 04:03
If anyone in the UK is interested in seeing some of Henri Cartier Bressons Photographs.There is an exhibition of his work between 1932 and 1946 at The National Media Museum situated in Bradford West Yorkshire from the 7th march to 1st June.
Regards
Steve
Spotted that too.
I've been talking to Kuvvy about making it a RFF day out if anyone is interested.
I've been erring towards as late in teh year as possible in the hope of getting better weather.
We could all meet up and intellectualise over a curry. ;)
Spotted that too.
I've been talking to Kuvvy about making it a RFF day out if anyone is interested.
I've been erring towards as late in teh year as possible in the hope of getting better weather.
We could all meet up and intellectualise over a curry. ;)
I shall be going, and would be interested, I’ll go in the first week and do a recon if you like, the Karachi is only 200yds from the museum, but sadly I don’t think there are any pubs en-route
just a quick thought that crossed my mind during watching -
doesn't it seem like he shot awful many frames?
let me explain:
when people talk about getting it right, at the decisive moment, what i have in mind is not 40 tries of the exact same scene and composition.
sure, you could say they are all great 'decisive moments', but i still didn't think of it as a full roll per scene..
so how do YOU photograph such scenes? when you have a great opprotunity to capture a beautiful moment?
Bobfrance
01-28-2008, 05:44
I shall be going, and would be interested, I’ll go in the first week and do a recon if you like, the Karachi is only 200yds from the museum, but sadly I don’t think there are any pubs en-route
No pub? In that case a detour is in order! ;)
Let me know what you think the best plan is then we'll make an announcement nearer the time.
Al Kaplan
01-28-2008, 05:44
Sure, National Geographic photographers shot thousands of frames, but it wasn't hot breaking news they were covering. They'd often spend weeks, even months on a single asignment. They mostly shot Kodachrome which meant bracketing exposures where possible. Transportation time was longer and costs greater years ago. People didn't just hop a jet. It wasn't until the late 1960's that it started to become cheaper to fly than to go by ship or rail. The photographer still got half day rate for all the travel time, plus meals and hotel expenses. Film expense wasn't the major concern. Still they didn't go crazy shooting either. The logistics of moving that film to the lab from half way around the planet was still there.
I wish that there was some way to take you younger shooters back in time forty or so years to the three day annual Wilson Hicks Photojournalism Conference at the University of Miami. You could listen to the top photographers tell of their experiences, see slide presentations, hear from top magazine editors about what they looked for, and then in the evening wander around the pool patio at the University Inn across the street and get into casual conversations with these people. The internet experience just isn't the same thing.
No pub? In that case a detour is in order! ;)
Let me know what you think the best plan is then we'll make an announcement nearer the time.
I’ll do some research :D :D
The museum is open 10:00 to 18:00 all week I think, it’s a short walk from the transport interchange (rail and bus), parking is also available fairly close by, and being close to the university there are one or two bars and restaurants.
The IMAX is worth seeing for anyone who hasn’t seen one before
PS The Easter weekend is 23rd March
Al Kaplan
01-28-2008, 07:28
I think that it'd be a good experience for some of the newer younger photographers to be handed a single 36 exposure roll of Tri-X and given three asignments with a four hour deadline to get finished prints on the editor's desk. Film was relatively more expensive years ago. When I look back through my old contact sheets I'm amazed at some of the shots that I managed to get when shooting for a newspaper under those conditions. I'm sure that others would say the same thing.
Al Kaplan
01-28-2008, 07:34
http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com/2006/06/jai-alai-player.html
The text explains how it was shot. Nowadays I guess it'd be 2,000 digital exposures?
Bobfrance
01-28-2008, 07:48
I’ll do some research :D :D
The museum is open 10:00 to 18:00 all week I think, it’s a short walk from the transport interchange (rail and bus), parking is also available fairly close by, and being close to the university there are one or two bars and restaurants.
The IMAX is worth seeing for anyone who hasn’t seen one before
PS The Easter weekend is 23rd March
The IMAX is ace.
I want to get some pictures of RFF members riding the magic carpet ;)
Do they still have that there?
The IMAX is ace.
I want to get some pictures of RFF members riding the magic carpet ;)
Do they still have that there?
I wasn’t aware they ever had one :o I only live some 10 miles away, so being a local attraction I never go :o
I’ve only been round it two or three times all the time it’s been open :eek:
You've got a point there. Though how can you justify what he says, a few minutes before or after ,about people pressing and pressing the shutter without even looking at what happens in the scene.
Do you think there is a possibility that he could include himself when he says "people"??
I am uploading "Just plain love" it's the non dubbed w/ subtitles version. If you want to have it, I will start a thread for it.
Ok but painters only do it once only don't they?
please start thread. I got much more nice and full "image" of Henri personality after I seen the movie. So I'll wait until you seen that so we can discuss about. We cannot always expect that every photographer will be loved by everybody :)
please start thread. I got much more nice and full "image" of Henri personality after I seen the movie. So I'll wait until you seen that so we can discuss about. We cannot always expect that every photographer will be loved by everybody :)
I've put the first part up...
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=736036#post736036
larmarv916
01-28-2008, 13:59
I think that "3js" hitting at the heart of the issue....that is as it relates to HCB and many other Photographers & Artists. HCB was at one time worried about being "type cast" and Capa suggested to him the way to avoid that was just to say he was a photojournalist. Otherwise he would end up being "that little surrealist photographer" When we look back at art history...thin how many arisits have been forgotten in the march of time.
So the judgement of history will have a cleansing effect on photogrpahy. The vast majority will not even be a memory or foot note. Also there is a deep predjuice on the part of Gallery owners who push a particluar persons work. Only for your to find out that they happen to be a collector or purchased the estate of an artist and so the gallery is not interested in finding new talent.
There a rather "worshiped" photo gallery in Monterey California and the total inventory is prints that were given or acquired by accident. This gallery is really doing nothing but riding or milking what at one time were cast off prints of now famous Dead Guys.
So maybe someday we will see a Louve Photo Musuem covering a 1000 years of work. but we will not live to see it. The prints hanging on the wall then may most likley not even be able to get gallery showing in this day and age.
HCB was to my knowledge not worried about anything other than showing what he thought was his best work. That is really all any of "us" can strive to accomplish.
the father of a friend...once purchased a 8x10 "Moonrise over Hernandze" print from Adams out of the back of his station wagon. For what was a whopping 50 bucks. He chose it because he thought it was different but no great. It was a gift fro his wife. They hung it on the wall for 30+ years. Until I walked in and gasped..wow! I was a student and he offered it to me for an insane 750 dollars in 1980. The print was signed and date by Adams.
My point is that the current expressionst photography movement or any other movement will be replaced by someother and then another. Any great image will stand or fade on it's merits and not on who shot it. That is unless your a boot licking slacker trying to make slither your way into artistic status.
HCB and Doisneau, Brassi , Kertesz, Capa were in the prewar period rubing shoulders and not actually worried about what they shot or if the vast majority of the commerical art world liked it. Paris does not get the status if deserves for many great photographers it grew in it's creative garden of the prewar years.
These guys really enjoyed each others work and were a new circle of artists inside the Paris art community. Not something you see very much today.
HCB was at one time worried about being "type cast" and Capa suggested to him the way to avoid that was just to say he was a photojournalist. Otherwise he would end up being "that little surrealist photographer"
True AFAIK, though there's an inch of the story missing there. Apparently, Capa also advised HCB not to adopt a surreal style because otherwise he would not get any assignments...
Al Kaplan
01-28-2008, 14:16
Today it's not as easy to meet other photographers, great or not, in the flesh. The neighborhood camera store is a thing of the past. It's not easy to find others to talk shop over a beer or a coffee these days. Back in the 1960's a neighborhood high school student used my darkroom. We used to go to Dunkin' Donuts while the prints were in the wash...LOL I have a signed print on my wall by him from that era, dated 1968. He went on to a career shooting for National Geographic's book division. More recently he became a director of Magnum. Never throw anything away!
I still haven't seen the movie.
teus: mplayer(windows media player?) didn't work and I don't know what the hell VLC is.
I usually love my mac, but now is not one of those times. Coincidentally, the filter at work is working and apparently the word "sex" causes it to block me out of it there- on a windoze machine of course.
technology sucks sometimes, or at least it's over-thought sometimes.
IGMeanwell
01-28-2008, 19:44
I still haven't seen the movie.
teus: mplayer(windows media player?) didn't work and I don't know what the hell VLC is.
I usually love my mac, but now is not one of those times. Coincidentally, the filter at work is working and apparently the word "sex" causes it to block me out of it there- on a windoze machine of course.
technology sucks sometimes, or at least it's over-thought sometimes.
Google is your friend
VLC for mac http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html
that player can read pretty much any movie format out there including MP4
The contacts series is a good one ... I like the ability to not only see the frames that were selected by the photographer but also the frames that were not
Thank you IGMeanwell, I should have known better....but oh well....I've finally seen it & thanks to you.
Now I have to watch it 3 or 4 times to digest all that is given there.
But this is a nesessary start!
We are forgetting that HCB comes from another era than most of us. We should judge him accordingly. In the 30's "photojournalism" was more of an essayist with a camera, rather than a pen. The stories were built up and shown as such. Rarely was it a "single' shot. The magazines of the era used photography as a storyboard. Yes, there might be one or two shots that were standouts, but not all of them.
In the 40's and 50's this really "gelled" and we had the extensive picture story that really only needed captions and s short lead-in to set the story!
Where HCB shines is that he recognized the key shot and used it! He was also a " walker" and took pictures all the time, wether he was on assignment or not!
Yes, he had the luxury to come from a moderatly wealthy family (Bresson Textile Mills) and had support from the family. There was an unwritten code amoong the Magnum shooters not to show placards from Bresson Textile mill workers when they covered protests or "manifestations" on the streets. This position allowed him to take pictures with less concern for the next meal, but it in no way demeans his influence on 20th century photography. There were many like him in the 30's,40's and 50's. Lartique comes to mind, never had to work, coming from a very wealthy banking family. Brassai similarly. This kind of background probably allowed them to do what they loved doing without the necessity of providing food and shelter. Dont we all wish that our situation would be similar? Would we be better photographers for it? Probably not! Some of us have done this the tough way, cutting back on "non-essentials' like food,shelter, status symbols do pursue what we love to do and that is very much the same thing.
HCB was a bit of a "luddite" when it came to the technical aspects. He knew what he needed, how the camera behaved, how a certian film worked and he quickly realized that having someone else develop and print eliminated one, according to him, tedious aspect of his craft.
Was he a snob! Yes, I think so, but he is one of the few who, in my estimation, had the right to be one.
He obviously detested technical questions and unfortunately his use of the Leica had people asking him "Which is the best lens" or "How do I expose for this or that". Did he like the limelight? He professed that he wanted to stay incognito, but got pissed if he wasen't afforded the respect he deserved and sucked up the accolades dumped on him. In short, he was a normal human being with a skill of a finely honed craftsman.
I never met him personally (briefly in France at the launch of the book "France" - which incidently contains color shots by him!), but I have friends who knew him quite well.
If you go back and look at his books, "The Decisive Moment" and the "Europeas" are only two of these, his books on India, China,Russia shows him as a "essayist" photographer. "Man and Machine" shows that he did not loose his touch in the 60's and 70's. He was and will be, one of the giants of our time when it comes to show us the world!
I must admit, that if I had been him I would have taken my 2-300 best images, stitched them together and made them up as a set of contacts (say 20-30 of them) and then showed it to the world saying" OH, I really haven't shot that much. Here are my complete contact sheet collection!" That would have depressed a lot of us!
Of course he shot a lot of film. He was on assignment and he know full well that the editor wanted a full set of prints to work from "Oh, too bad you didn't shoot that as vertical" or vice versa!
Over the years I have accumulated a fair bit of his books. Depending on my mood, I either like him or find him banal. The "Scrap book" that came out last year is very interesting as it shows images that he, himself would not have let out! He supposedly one time proclaimed" Contact sheets are like taking your pants off in public".
He is still amazing though, for almost 60 years he documented the world as he saw it - and I suspect "colored" our view of it too in so doing.
capronimus
01-29-2008, 16:15
FOR THOSE PEOPLE INTERESTED IN HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON.
You can find an interview made in english by Charlie Rose.
This is the link:
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=UHXVGEeNzsQ
enjoy it!! :rolleyes::):D
It was more like a decisive day or a decisive few hours or 15 minutes etc... :)
I say that because he [HCB] decided on what camera/lens/film to use, he took a light reading and then he chose to be in a particular place (even if he went for a walk he still decided which direction to go) and then most often he waited for 'everything to be in the right place' - but this clip showed that he kept shooting like any other photographer "just to make sure"...
He bracketed!
... And although there is nothing wrong with that, at the same time it totally destroys the myth of HCB having this god-given talent of deciding on the decisive moment, finding the perfect composition and capturing the image in a single shot.
I think HCB was a great photographer but the style of photography that he became famous for was already used by Kartesz and Walker Evans. And also HCB's photos lack emotional impact - as Robert Frank said it, and I paraphrase, "he does not seems to be moved by what he photographed."
Just my two cents and I still have the deepest respect for HCB, to me he would always be the humanistic and intelligent face of photography.
remegius
03-04-2008, 10:09
It was more like a decisive day or a decisive few hours or 15 minutes etc... :)
I say that because he [HCB] decided on what camera/lens/film to use, he took a light reading and then he chose to be in a particular place (even if he went for a walk he still decided which direction to go) and then most often he waited for 'everything to be in the right place' - but this clip showed that he kept shooting like any other photographer "just to make sure"...
He bracketed!
Where did you get that information? Years ago there was a documentary made on HCB, where the filmaker followed HCB around the streets of NY (I believe it was NY). Anyway, the film clearly showed that HCB did not bracket anything, at least in the situations shown. I can imagine that in some kinds of "static" situations, where there is time to adjust, that he would "bracket" just like any of us would. But that has nothing to do with photographs that exude the "decisive moment."
As for Robert Frank---a great photographer, and one who is just like the rest of us...that is to say, one who is capable of making silly statements.
Cheers...
I don't see it as bracketing so much as making adjustments. David Hurns in "On Being a Photographer" said that all great photographers shoot this way.
I love HCB. He was the first photographer that I truly made an impact on me. Before I discovered his photographs, I somewhat thought that photography, as art, was a bit frivolous and often superficial. I've come to admire many other photographers, especially Kodelka and Salgado, but HCB still remains my favourite. He was the one to open up my eyes to the world photography and I never tire of looking at his photographs.
Gabriel M.A.
03-04-2008, 10:33
I think that it'd be a good experience for some of the newer younger photographers to be handed a single 36 exposure roll of Tri-X and given three asignments with a four hour deadline to get finished prints on the editor's desk.
That's a recipe for a major case of Whine! I shot something this weekend, and they expected the photos the very next morning. I can't imagine them dealing with film in that case.
It's the age of McPhotos, unfortunately. The profession in "professional" is now only defined by whether you receive money or not these days, not by application of skills and time onto it, I'm afraid.
You really needed to know what you were doing, rather than just crank stuff out from a digital file; which is why most digital cameras have the color settings as a preset.
williams473
03-04-2008, 19:22
I keep a Eugene Smith quote on my darkroom wall, which I think is apropos to this discussion:
"Negatives are the notebooks, the jottings, the false starts, the whims, the poor drafts, and the good draft but never the complete version of the work... the print and a proper one is the only completed photograph, whether it is specifically shaded for reproduction, or for a museum wall. Negatives are private, as in my bedroom."
I keep this quote up to remind me to shoot first and ask questions later. It reminds me that I don't ever need to justify why I shoot anything to anyone. For me, Cartier-Bresson's negatives are nothing to judge him by. Seeing them makes a legend seem more mortal perhaps, but in the end he should be judged by his finished work, which I think the World agrees is the gold standard in photojournalism.
It is certainly instructive however, to see which image a photographer chooses to print among a series. Interesting, but as Smith states, not the work itself. Just because we snap the shutter doesn't mean we made a photograph worthy of working into a print for publishing or hanging in a gallery.
I also feel that photography has a characteristic to the process which is very different from painting, drawing, or even sculpture - many of the other visual arts are created through a building process - the artist has an idea, and then brings material together in an additive way to represent the idea. Layers of paint, coils of clay, objects in an installation etc. In the Art of photography, we reduce. We take everything and boil it down to one thing. We consider every possible place in the World, every possible event or person, and then choose from all the angles, lenses, filters, effects, films, developers etc - and we get to one, single choice - a pure reduction of everything. To perfect that reduction and get an image that is the way we saw it takes a lot of shooting, because unless we are in a studio (yuck) we aren't ever in full control of the elements we have to work with. So I don't know why we're suprised Cartier-Bresson occasionally bracketed. He also shot masterpieces while not even looking through the camera, and he laughingly admitted it. But one thing is for sure, it took his eye to realize that he had a materpiece on his hands when he saw the contacts.
HCB's greatest achievement was superb composition on the fly. But then again he seemed to be only interested in "pretty pictures" and the question arises if he had gone to photograph the aftermath of WWII and the concentration camps (which he didn't), how he would've "composed" those types of images?
But then again he was never interested in the dark side of human exsitance and thats why his photos are "glib" and relentlessly optimistic. That is not surprising because he was a rich and prevelidged guy who never had to worry about making a living... And his "pretty pictures" are easy to like because they don't ask anything of the viewer, unlike the works of Gene Smith, Robert Frank, William Klein or Salgado.
I'm not dissmissing HCB and trying to annoy its fans, I was one of his fans as well and I still deeply respect his legacy, but for me thats where it stops.
remegius
03-04-2008, 21:17
But then again he was never interested in the dark side of human exsitance and thats why his photos are "glib" and relentlessly optimistic. That is not surprising because he was a rich and prevelidged guy who never had to worry about making a living... And his "pretty pictures" are easy to like because they don't ask anything of the viewer, unlike the works of Gene Smith, Robert Frank, William Klein or Salgado.
You have to love comments like this. Makes you wonder which photographer we're talking about. I just got through reviewing the anthology. The whores...the dead partisan at the foot of the bridge...the woman denounced...the human refuse laying dead or drunk in the street...the one-legged boy on crutches. Such glibbness, such relentless optimism. Right.
Cheers...
antiquark
03-04-2008, 21:31
the question arises if he had gone to photograph the aftermath of WWII and the concentration camps (which he didn't)
The pictures would probably look like the ones he took at concentration camps, like this:
http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bressongestapo.htm
or this:
http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bressonrussianchild.htm
You have to love comments like this. Makes you wonder which photographer we're talking about. I just got through reviewing the anthology. The whores...the dead partisan at the foot of the bridge...the woman denounced...the human refuse laying dead or drunk in the street...the one-legged boy on crutches. Such glibbness, such relentless optimism. Right.
Cheers...
Totally agree, remegius. Further, if you're going to talk about "pretty pictures"....well, it's hard not to think of Salgado....but I won't go there as this place seems sometimes to be a Salgado Worship Centre.
Gabriel M.A.
03-05-2008, 17:06
You have to love comments like this. Makes you wonder which photographer we're talking about. I just got through reviewing the anthology. The whores...the dead partisan at the foot of the bridge...the woman denounced...the human refuse laying dead or drunk in the street...the one-legged boy on crutches. Such glibbness, such relentless optimism. Right.
Spot on. Nowadays, bumper-sticker phrases are the only thing used to digest anything. Complexity is discarded by bias and/or mental laziness.
That's why the most beloved artists tend to have only one style, either as output, or as focus by their worshipers and/or detractors.
This viewed is summed up by their common complaint: "distracting".
You have to love comments like this. Makes you wonder which photographer we're talking about. I just got through reviewing the anthology. The whores...the dead partisan at the foot of the bridge...the woman denounced...the human refuse laying dead or drunk in the street...the one-legged boy on crutches. Such glibbness, such relentless optimism. Right.
Cheers...
Those images were 'found objects or subjects', not a concerted effort to travel to one particular place and photograph a particular social issue which needed attention.
Salgado went to Sahel and spent a lot of time in the most dreadful situation and amongst unimaginable human misery and yet he photographed those suffering famine and starvation with such lyrical beauty that any human being with a conscience cannot walk away after viewing those photos and not feel like shedding tears... His pictures are not simply pretty but beautiful as in one describes a beautiful poem.
Eugene Smith risked his life photographing the workers poisoned by a chemical factory and in the process was beaten up and yet his photos of the deformed girl in bath is a masterpiece which reminds one of Michelangelo’s Pieta.
Robert Frank went around US and photographed the racism, boring jobs and bleak landscape, saying that American dream is an illusion and in the process had to endure even being thrown in jail for three days in some place down south. While his book The Americans was dismissed and hated by everyone in US – however, now its considered the most important work of photography in the second half of twentieth century.
While in the mean time HCB photographed celebrities, artists, Sadus in India, some places in china and although those were nicely composed images, they lack depth of feeling and make no statement about human condition apart, 'its all good because it looks good on photographs'... He hang around the right circles and therefore got the exposure and he always took photos which did not ruffle any feathers.
Anyway, I'm just sick of the hype with HCB and lets not creates idols of one photographer in the expense of others, because it hurts photography as an art.
remegius
03-06-2008, 10:54
Anyway, I'm just sick of the hype with HCB and lets not creates idols of one photographer in the expense of others, because it hurts photography as an art.
Idols? The expense of others? It hurts photography? Preposterous! It's time for you to examine why poor 'ol HCB is living rent free in your head.
Cheers...
larmarv916
03-06-2008, 11:57
[quote=remegius]Idols? The expense of others? It hurts photography? Preposterous! It's time for you to examine why poor 'ol HCB is living rent free in your head.
Yes..."remegius" I think you have nailed from 500 yards out. Good Shot.
The only people who are creating idols...are normally boot lickers who are normally more engaged intelectuaizing the hiden meanings and other crap.
Much like arm-chair quaterbacks.....If we want to angonize over people getting "idol" status...look at the "group" behind the "push" Follow the trail of the money.
My best case for this hype mongering is the owners behind Ansel Adams his work and the after his death his negatives and publishing rights of that work. I think even Adams would be uncomfortable with being treated like some sacred cow.
Many of these legenday "artists" were in reality massive self promotional performers. Look at the commerical relationship between Adams and the Sierra Club....he was president, what 7 times. The single source for calendars and other commerical materials.
HCB is by comparison almost a unmarketed artist. Magnum was in the end a much greater gift to photographers in general. As up to that point there had never been an agency to promote photographic work world wide. Sure HCB had some books published but was basicly a non promtional artist. And did not really consider himself to be "A Photographer" personality.
Not a self anoited disciple of "Photograpic enlightment" as much of the "Monterey Gang" that is now so worshiped in fine art circles. Or as I like to call it the " only dead guys" are great syndrom.
Eveyrone has a view on this but, as I see it those seeking "fame" never deserve it" and those who do never actually know it in their own lifetime.
All the best.....Laurance
cosmonot
03-06-2008, 12:13
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but the "Contacts" series is available on Netflix (for those over here in the USA, at least). HCB is on the first disc, and yes, it's got an english voiceover so we dumb merkins can understand what he says.
I found the work of some of the other photographers on Vol. 1 to be more interesting than HCB's, and for the most part, their commentaries were a little more meaningful. Some of the narrations are more discriptive and explanatory, some (mostly the French photographers, it seemed) were definitely commenting on a existential/philosophical/poetic level that's really quite lost on me.
Gabriel M.A.
03-06-2008, 12:50
Idols? The expense of others? It hurts photography? Preposterous! It's time for you to examine why poor 'ol HCB is living rent free in your head.
I couldn't have said it better.
It's like complaining about Leonardo da Vinci, and how he doesn't deserve any praise and hype because, well, because somebody doesn't like him, and he just didn't paint like Thomas Kincaid.
Damn you, Leonardo, and your Renaissance ways! :rolleyes:
Gabriel M.A.
03-06-2008, 12:58
While in the mean time HCB photographed celebrities, artists, Sadus in India, some places in china and although those were nicely composed images, they lack depth of feeling and make no statement about human condition apart, 'its all good because it looks good on photographs'... He hang around the right circles and therefore got the exposure and he always took photos which did not ruffle any feathers.
You obviously don't understand a thing about HCB. As a former prisoner of war in WWII, who escaped a Nazi prison, and with strong views against war and inequality, you fail to see how he brings out beauty in the most appalling areas.
Exhalting flaws is easy. Transforming them into beauty, that's art.
Is there any edition of the whole series which speaks french with english subtitles?
I just can't stand hearing fake english voiceovers. When someone talks about his art, I do want to hear the emotion in his (or her) voice.
Robert Frank went around US and photographed the racism, boring jobs and bleak landscape, saying that American dream is an illusion and in the process had to endure even being thrown in jail for three days in some place down south.
Wow, really, three days in prison? HCB was a POW, and he managed to escape on his 3rd(?) attemp. Sorry, the germans did not alloy any cameras in the camps... You have no faintest idea what your talkin about. Please be quiet.
Al Kaplan
03-06-2008, 13:22
He was what he was. You can't judge mid twentieth century photography by twenty-first century vision. It was a far different world and people had very different concerns. He documented what interested him. You like them or you don't.
Well, I know I cannot change the mind of HCB fans but I hope at least I provided the impetus to look far beyond one's idols and see if there is anything else worth looking at.
I also thank you for the laugh by comparing HCB to Da vinci and Ansel Adams. :)
peace,
antiquark
03-06-2008, 17:08
I also thank you for the laugh by comparing HCB to Da vinci and Ansel Adams.
Reminds me of a famous HCB quote:
"The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks!"
:D
While in the mean time HCB photographed celebrities, artists, Sadus in India, some places in china and although those were nicely composed images, they lack depth of feeling and make no statement about human condition apart, 'its all good because it looks good on photographs'... He hang around the right circles and therefore got the exposure and he always took photos which did not ruffle any feathers.
Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.
A lot of "rich kids" were successful as photographers and writers, not so much for their talents as for the fact that they attended the same prep schools and universities as the editors of the magazines or the art directors at the ad agencies, as did their fathers before them. I think that HCB had more talent than most but he also had the money to wander the streets and shoot film at will. Financial security can be liberating.
I have a friend who's been shooting since she was twelve. I started about 5 years ago. She's still working her way through art school. Last year I got a job at a small 16,000 circulation bimonthly magazine. She's the one who got me into photography. Prior to her I had no interest. It pisses her off to no end that I'm living her dream. And she blames it on my trust fund. That since I don't need to work, I can afford to wait for opportunities to come along, rather than pass them up because I'm tethered to a 9-5.
But I've noticed as a whole, a lot of successful photographers, came from well off backgrounds. HCB, Walker Evans, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus.
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