Cartier-Bresson - Surrealism and communism!

[David Hughes]

Hi,

For what it's worth, I've always seen it as fashion or popularity, like many other things. Value has been debased to mean saleroom price but I think a lot of us here would agree that the value of a camera has nothing to do with what we paid for it nor with what the original price was. Thinking of the way digitals drop in value as I type that...

And that leads to thoughts about the way some things are over priced but no point in going down that path.

Regards, David

 

[Rodchenko]

P3050025 by TJ Clarion, on Flickr

 

[paulfish4570]

^ bwahahahahahahahahahaha!
now, THAT's art ... 🙂

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

About the subject of discussion.. I think it is all here: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/11/c-b-n05.html

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Yesterday I finished reading of russian translation for "VOIR EST UN TOUT - ENTRETIENS ET CONVERSATIONS - 1951-1998". Which is collection of interviews with HCB.

I don't think HCB was consistently misleading, he seems to be more less honest.
So, he wasn't communist and after reading of Surrealism Manifesto I realized it is good and simple thing, but hard to achieve.

This book, as the book about photography is most significant and easy to understand from what I have read. I'm not surprised why they have published it in Russian. 🙂
I wonder if it is available in English.
https://boutique.centrepompidou.fr/...ntretiens-et-conversations-1951-1998/540.html

 

[Highway 61]

Yesterday I finished reading of russian translation for "VOIR EST UN TOUT - ENTRETIENS ET CONVERSATIONS - 1951-1998". Which is collection of interviews with HCB.

Excellent book actually, in which you"ll discover that he tells he often used a 35mm and also a Nikkor-S-C 50mm f/1.4 in LTM in the 1950s, because according to him Leitz didn't make any good f/1.4 lens at that time.

After having read it (in French) I suddenly got the collectable and original "People of Moscow" book of HCB's photos published by Robert Delpire in the 1950s. No ideological connection, though. 😉

 

[Baby of Macon]

The article title was probably chosen by a sub editor - hence the frequent discontinuity between journalist's copy and the headlines.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

...After having read it (in French) I suddenly got the collectable and original "People of Moscow" book of HCB's photos published by Robert Delpire in the 1950s...

As soon as I started to read it I ordered three of his books! 😀

 

[Timmyjoe]

Excellent book actually, in which you"ll discover that he tells he often used a 35mm and also a Nikkor-S-C 50mm f/1.4 in LTM in the 1950s, because according to him Leitz didn't make any good f/1.4 lens at that time.

David Douglas Duncan discovered the same thing, that's why he used a Nikkor 50mm f1.5 LTM with his Leica iiic for all those incredible images he made during the Korean War (early 1950's).

 

[Ko.Fe.]

And Winograd was using Canon 28 on M4, before Leica came with 28 and he could afford it.

Gearwise to me most significant and surprising remarks from HCB were on Rolleiflex, which I read in two interviews in this book. The same reasons why I dismissed TLRs from my photo arsenal. 🙂