Contacts - Henri Cartier Bresson

[Pablito]

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.

 

[swoop]

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.