HCB -50mm, GW -28mm. Who is 35mm?

Ko.Fe.

Ko.Fe.

Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
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Two big names in photography associated with 50mm and 28mm lenses.
Is here anyone from well known with primary use of 35mm lens?
Thank you, Ko.
 
It is a misconception that Cartier-Bresson worked only with a 50mm lens. Who knows his book A propos de l'USSR (1973) - maybe his best - knows that he often used a 35mm lens for reportage photography.

Erik.
 
What Erik said.

Bresson.jpg


SUNDAY ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER MARNE, JURISY, FRANCE
Bresson, 1938
 
Ko.Fe. said:
Is here anyone from well known with primary use of 35mm lens?
Click to expand...

David Alan Harvey reputedly used only a 35 Summilux for most of his formative work. As far as I know Alex Webb was also a 35 man (Summicron I think) for much of his famous 1970s work. Jeff Mermelstein is well known for using pretty much only a 35 Summicron.
 
Roland, often it is difficult to see if a shot is with a 50mm or with a 35mm. I would think that shot on the banks of the Marne is with a 50mm, but I am not 100% sure.

I think this one from Cartier-Bresson is with a 35mm, Russia in 1973:


25237072030_5377349a31.jpg


Erik.
 
Erik van Straten said:
Roland, often it is difficult to see if a shot is with a 50mm or with a 35mm. I would think that shot on the banks of the Marne is with a 50mm, but I am not 100% sure.
Erik.
Click to expand...

Another misconception is about Cartier-Bresson never cropping. Actually he did so quite often, but those cropped pictures display the legendary black frame supposed to come from the enlarger as a proof of the picture not having been cropped, and which was added afterwards to fool the spectator in some cases...

The book Celebrating the negative, by John Loengard, shows this pretty well :

be95c9b17b26cf1b486972e8b8246bb3.jpg


The "Banks of the Marne" might have been severely cropped too, so that we cannot be sure of the native focal length.

His photo of the two lovers sleeping in each other's arms in a train in Romania cannot have been shot with a 50mm in my opinion, just because you cannot frame like he did when you are seating in front of people you shoot in a train compartment if you use a 50mm.
 
Highway 61 said:
the legendary black frame which was added afterwards to fool the spectator in some cases...
Click to expand...

Yes, Nicolas, of course, but in the case of the jumping man he told everyone that he did not look through the viewfinder when shooting the picture, so we can forgive him in this case. It is a wonderful example of surrealistic or spiritistic "dessin automatique".

But in the book "A propos de l'USSR" there are quite a lot of pictures with the 35mm wich gives it a delightful liveliness.

Erik.
 
HCB was a first rate photographer with a top shelf ego... I would not take his ramblings too seriously. His work says all you need to know.
 
For me the black frame isn't that important, this was to say that a cropped picture makes it more difficult to guess the focal length it was taken with because it kinda modifies the perspective perception (sort of).

Two years ago I went and visited the large HCB retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris :

14267130838_53d3c55b2b_b.jpg


[Nikon S2, Nikkor-H-C 50/2, not cropped ;)]

And - to my great surprise - none of the photos were displayed with the legendary black frame ! Clément Chéroux, the exhibition curator, told that this was his own choice, because he was finding this black frame thing a bit questionable at the end of the day.

That doesn't mean I don't think HCB was a genious. He was. ;)
 
William Klein ( his NY shots), Koudelka and Rene' Burri for example used a 35mm as their main lens for long periods of time.
 
Other 35mm users:

Richard Kelvar
Emanuel Smague
Constantine Manos
Stella Johnson
Alex Webb
Lee Friedlander
David Allan Harvey
Robert Frank
Garcia Rodero
 
Let me add a few refinements. Frank also shot a lot at 50mm, as did Burri. (In fact, at least one of Burri's classic images [Men on a rooftop] was taken with a 180mm!). Finally, Koudelka's greatest work, arguably, was at 25mm.
 
What are those, 8x12 in a 12x16 frame? The prints are much smaller than other Bresson images I have seen.

Highway 61 said:
For me the black frame isn't that important, this was to say that a cropped picture makes it more difficult to guess the focal length it was taken with because it kinda modifies the perspective perception (sort of).

Two years ago I went and visited the large HCB retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris :

14267130838_53d3c55b2b_b.jpg


[Nikon S2, Nikkor-H-C 50/2, not cropped ;)]

And - to my great surprise - none of the photos were displayed with the legendary black frame ! Clément Chéroux, the exhibition curator, told that this was his own choice, because he was finding this black frame thing a bit questionable at the end of the day.

That doesn't mean I don't think HCB was a genious. He was. ;)
Click to expand...
 
ferider said:
What Erik said.

Bresson.jpg


SUNDAY ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER MARNE, JURISY, FRANCE
Bresson, 1938
Click to expand...

Erik van Straten said:
Roland, often it is difficult to see if a shot is with a 50mm or with a 35mm. I would think that shot on the banks of the Marne is with a 50mm, but I am not 100% sure.

I think this one from Cartier-Bresson is with a 35mm, Russia in 1973:



Erik.
Click to expand...


I always think that this was shot with at least a 35, but more likely a 28. He is very close to the man pouring the wine, and he becomes distorted at the edge. The boat is also not THAT far away, but it looks very small!

Anyway, I think Trent Parks shoots a lot with a 35mm, especially Minutes to Midnight - although some of it was done on MF.

And of course the OP, Ko also shoots primarily with a 35mm lens and he does great work!
 
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