Day
Member
Hello fellas,
after "If I'd taken that picture", I got another question that bothers me
since a few weeks.
HCB was famous for its sentence "Its all about luck."
In a documentary he said, the following picture was made without any
vision thru a wooden fence.
So, is a photographer like HCB just a simple man who was lucky
all his lifetime when it is about pictures? Like someone who won
a few million $ in the lottery? Just luck - nothing else?
after "If I'd taken that picture", I got another question that bothers me
since a few weeks.
HCB was famous for its sentence "Its all about luck."
In a documentary he said, the following picture was made without any
vision thru a wooden fence.
So, is a photographer like HCB just a simple man who was lucky
all his lifetime when it is about pictures? Like someone who won
a few million $ in the lottery? Just luck - nothing else?
Roger Hicks
Veteran
"Fortune favours the prepared mind" -- generally attributed to Pasteur.
There are also necessary and sufficient conditions. Necessary conditions of being a great photographer are (a) taking pictures and (b) thinking about them, but these are not sufficient conditions. That's where luck starts to be more and more important.
Cheers,
R.
There are also necessary and sufficient conditions. Necessary conditions of being a great photographer are (a) taking pictures and (b) thinking about them, but these are not sufficient conditions. That's where luck starts to be more and more important.
Cheers,
R.
willie_901
Veteran
I prefer to to differentiate between a one-off, random event and working hard to be prepared to take advantage of luck when it happens to appear.
Winning the lottery is not the same as developing an evolving, dynamic investment strategy. Yet both depend on psuedo-random events. There's a reason why practically everyone who spends money on the lottery never gets rich.
In my view the body of HCB's work is consistent with someone who made an effort to find luck rather than let luck find them.
Perhaps HCB's birth into a wealthy family was the only random event he actually needed.
“Life's single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever admit to in a lifetime and stay sane.”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.
Winning the lottery is not the same as developing an evolving, dynamic investment strategy. Yet both depend on psuedo-random events. There's a reason why practically everyone who spends money on the lottery never gets rich.
In my view the body of HCB's work is consistent with someone who made an effort to find luck rather than let luck find them.
Perhaps HCB's birth into a wealthy family was the only random event he actually needed.
“Life's single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever admit to in a lifetime and stay sane.”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.
dovi
Well-known
Why so serious?
Why so serious?
HCB's statements tell you more about him than about photography.
Interesting, entertaining and completely personal. It's how he felt about his work.
Some stage the hell out of everything and others will compose, wait, point and shoot. If the result "Aint got that swing" no one cares too much.
Why so serious?
HCB's statements tell you more about him than about photography.
Interesting, entertaining and completely personal. It's how he felt about his work.
Some stage the hell out of everything and others will compose, wait, point and shoot. If the result "Aint got that swing" no one cares too much.
airfrogusmc
Veteran
The well prepared seem to get lucky consistently. He got lucky a lot.
Bresson also talked a lot about and in his words "a developed instinct" which he definitely had developed.
Bresson also talked a lot about and in his words "a developed instinct" which he definitely had developed.
Hosermage
Well-known
Modesty. I've grabbed a few shots myself that I would consider lucky, but for me to be there with the camera ready was no luck at all. I feel anything that's not staged is based on some amount of luck, but the point is for you to be out there to see them and be ready for those moments 100% of the time (or as close as you can).
mfogiel
Veteran
The main thing you need to remember, is that HCB has INVENTED his type of photography, and pretty much everybody else has followed. Then, HCB had a formal education to train his eye for compositions ( as painter), and finally he had an internal flame of a person who wants to better the world he lives in, hence his involvement with humanistic movements. Next, he has honed very well his particular shooting technique, and the last but not least, when he was around photographing, he habitually shot 20 rolls a day for 50 years. Then, call all this luck.
Rodchenko
Olympian
HCB invented what Paul Strand, Lewis Hine et al were already doing?
mfogiel
Veteran
Strand and Hine were hanging around with field cameras, this was not decisive moment- on the fly- photography.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
First highlight: Not really. "Detective" (unobtrusive, "decisive moment") photography goes back to the 1880s at least. Look also at Rodchenko, Salomon and the picture magazines of the 1920s, well before HCB
Second highlight: No, I'll call it myth-building, originally by HCB himself but much more, since, by his admirers.
Cheers,
R.
Rodchenko
Olympian
Salomon, thank you, Roger. That was a name I was flailing for.
kbg32
neo-romanticist
HCB was a hunter before he involved himself in photography.
I'd say there is a bit of a difference... though both were certainly also influential in their own right. Though you could argue that HCB's photography may not be the same with out those that did it before him...
Roger Hicks
Veteran
You're welcome. Nor should one neglect Ilya Ehrenburg. His Moi Parizh, shot with a Leica, was published in 1933, rather before HCB became widely known: HCB's first exhibition seems to have been in NYC in 1932, and he seems first to have been published in 1935. Was Ehrenburg as good a photographer? Not really. Then again, Ehrenburg was much more of a polymath. But he explodes any notion that HCB "invented" a specific style of photography with a Leica. It was an idea waiting to happen: the Leica was what allowed that style of photography to be done relatively easily.
Cheers,
R.
Rodchenko
Olympian
I think that pretty much encapsulates it. There's no doubt HCB was talented and an innovator, but he didn't invent the form.
airfrogusmc
Veteran
You could throw Stieglitz into the early mix to.
I think most of the great photographers, even the early ones, were aware of the moment.
I think most of the great photographers, even the early ones, were aware of the moment.
back alley
IMAGES
if i could master luck i'd have a great job or win the lotto!
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
OP, if you are into something, which you are doing for several hours per every day and you are gifted for it at beginning, the importance of luck is even more important. If you want to score high, get world known picture or find the treasure you need some luck in addition to the knowledge and experience.
More you work on your subject, more probability to recognize the lucky moment, place and light and do it right even if you are taking it on the fly.
More you work on your subject, more probability to recognize the lucky moment, place and light and do it right even if you are taking it on the fly.
Iestrada
Well-known
Lee treviño in golf, jokingly accepted that his success in the game was due to luck. But he always quickly followed it by saying that the more he practice the luckier he got.
Luck never helps the unprepared and untrained, I think!
Luck never helps the unprepared and untrained, I think!