A Portrait in Pictures: Henri Cartier-Bresson

Angelo · September 1, 2009

A Thread for discussing the works of Famous Photographers - Their images; Contribution to the Art; Social and Historical Significance.

In this thread please participate in a discussion about:

HENRY CARTIER-BRESSON - wiki

MAGNUM PROFILE

YOUTUBE

Other Photographers in this series.....

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Angelo · September 1, 2009

Henri Cartier-Bresson was recommended by a member as part of this series. Mr. Cartier-Bresson, the widely-regarded father of photojournalism had a prolific career.

Please join in with any thoughts you may have about Mr. Cartier-Bresson's body of work.

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JimW · September 4, 2009

Hi Angelo. I think this is a great idea. I love all the old B&W Masters of Photography, am always taking their books out to read and look and think, and have recently been studying Nadar. Anyway, here are three quick points regarding HCB.

1) HCB is one of my top ten all time favorites. The single most important thing I’ve learned from his work is to spend time looking through the viewfinder, plenty of time. As I’m sure most people know, he didn’t like to have his pictures cropped, as he preferred to compose in the viewfinder. I know I’m guilty of backing up to make sure I get a wide enough view and then tell myself I’ll crop it in post. Whenever I can, I fight this feeling and try to compose in camera.

2) HCB was a hunter, in fact he made his living that way for a while. I think he must have approached street shooting the same way. Circle the prey, don’t shoot yet, circle some more and look carefully before starting to shoot. I used to start shooting too soon. But now I try to tell myself to be more like HCB, be very patient and keep breathing.

3) I see some parallels between HCB and Nadar. Had HCB been born 80 years or so earlier, he might very well have fallen in with the bohemians and the start of modernism. As with Nadar and all his buddies, HCB fought against the bourgeois, and in fact his own industrialist father. His unique surrealist approach to defining art and life as the same might have fit in well with the youthful heady times in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. The big difference was that HCB wanted to be invisible, while Nadar’s best quality (arguably) was his talent for publicity.

For me, this is an example of finding something to learn from someone even when my work and my intentions are nothing at all like theirs. HCB was not interested in tonal range, nor developing and printing. I love all that stuff. He admitted he was terrible in a studio setting and didn’t like it. I love it. His portrait work, if you define portrait as a photo of someone who knows they’re being photographed, was not his best work. However, opposites attract, don’t they?:D I think we can learn from people even though our intentions may be opposite.

All thoughts are welcome.
Jim

rutt · January 15, 2010

The New Yorker's archive website is more than a little buggy, but this article is very much worth reading if you can. There is a moment where HCB is sitting at a cafe in Provence and borrows his wife's camera. Pretty cool to watch him decide not to shoot and learn why.

A lot of insight here.

ivar · January 15, 2010

rutt wrote:

but this article is very much worth reading if you can.

"if you can" means that you have to have a subscription to the new yorker, I take it?

Richard · January 15, 2010

One hour interview with Charlie Rose including introductory comments by Richard Avedon: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4074157481455007235#

I have seen other interviews out on the Web, but can't seem to locate them.

rutt · January 16, 2010

ivar wrote:

"if you can" means that you have to have a subscription to the new yorker, I take it?

Even if you do have a subscription, the site is frustrating to use. But, yes, a subscription is necessary. There are always good deals on these and The New Yorker is wonderful.

Marmeduke · May 6, 2010

I love the way HCB has a very light hearted attitude in his interviews. He took things seriously and was interested in people and events, but never got bogged down in the technicalities of photography. He saw his camera as a way of expressing his sensitivity to the nub of things and the emotional essence of passing moments. He almost never shot for purely aesthetic reasons but always honoured the human meaning with compositional rigour. I love his surrealist streak too, which often produced some quite funny shots (i.e - statue of a boy with horse's behind protruding from his body in a suggestive position!)

Another bio of HCB: http://www.photography-art-cafe.com/henri-cartier-bresson.html

Cool quotes by HCB and other famous photographers: http://www.photography-art-cafe.com/famous-photography-quotes.html

A Portrait in Pictures: Henri Cartier-Bresson

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