Contacts - Henri Cartier Bresson

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?
 
demian said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
rxmd said:
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
Click to expand...
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.
 
Last edited:
Pitxu said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Last edited:
Marc-A. said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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
 
Steve Litt said:
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
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, I only live about 10 miles from there but often miss important exhibitions, I’ll put that one in the diary

regards
 
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.
 
Luis said:
Thank you, Teus, for the very interesting documentary. Just two nits to pick
Click to expand...
ah, thank you for pointing it out. we were uncertain about this, but couldn't get it right.

blw said:
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.
Click to expand...
oh, you might try VLC or mplayer to watch it.
 
Steve Litt said:
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
Click to expand...

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. 😉
 
Bobfrance said:
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. 😉
Click to expand...

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?
 
sitemistic said:
While I'm not a big HCB fan, I do think the myth usually overwhelms the reality in many "great" artists. You really have to judge a photographer's work within the context of the time in which he worked. Ansel Adams shot beautiful b&w landscapes in the early 20th century. But now we look back on his work with our late 20th/early 21th century esthetic and subsequent exposure to many thousands of outstanding landscape photos and pronounce his work nothing special. And that is as it should be. Many have surpassed his work, his esthetic.
Click to expand...

Ok, but how you know that, did you measured it some how? Please tell me how, i`m all ears. This is not a competition, where you can use feet and inches, seconds and minutes, there is absolutely no way to say this is a better photo than that one. If you don´t like it , that´s fine, you don´t have to. Somebody else will. I don´t believe that "context of time"-thing, a champion is allways a champion, time isn´t a factor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom