HCB interview with Charlie Rose

[photovdz]

Wow! What a tedious interview!! Mssr. Bresson seems annoyed, preoccupied, cagey, and evasive. Rose seems to become annoyed too, so I agree...Rose could have done better.

But 50mm only, no cropping...what genius...I guess you really can't teach that!

there are photographical evidence of HCB using a biogon (supposedly a 35) on a leica IIIC with an adapter (photography in n° 77 of réponse-photo magazine)... so he sometimes used 35mm too...

But anyway a great man, a great artist...

And a strong individualist... anarchist...

Stephan

 

[NickTrop]

It would have been really cool if, during the interview, Charlie Rose and HCB put on singlets and had themselves a good ole fashioned 'rasslin' match.

 

[chambrenoire]

Picture of monsieur Cartier-Bresson with a CLE (!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/umdiaumafoto/24763474/

 

[tmfabian]

I found nothing elusive about that interview.
It seems to me that HCB simply enjoyed the moment and adding geometry to create a well composed image of that moment of enjoyment created an image of a moment worth examining for more than the mere moment it existed.
It's a good lesson to live life in a manner in which you simply enjoy the moment no need to rationalize or add extra wordage....
I'm quite happy you posted this, I had never seen that interview before and it was quite refreshing to hear something other than the deeper philosophical impact the artist intended to relay to society bla bla bla kill me now lecture.

 

[35mmdelux]

But 50mm only, no cropping...what genius...I guess you really can't teach that!

you said it all man. The rest of us go out with a boatload and never get as much as a t-shirt for our efforts, bah.

 

[35mmdelux]

part of the genius is that HCB knew the 50 as an extension of himself.

the foto loaded by chambrenoire suggests HCB was carrying a 40mm (CL) in addition to his 50 that day. WHen shooting in the States HCB said he used a 35mm and on more than one occasion HCB said he liked the 90mm for landscapes (!). Apparently he used more than simply the 50...but it was his favorite.

 

[JohnTF]

Hcb

Hcb

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4074157481455007235

Worth the watch. Pretty cool.

I happened to catch the original broadcast, quite by accident, and though I purchased the transcript, I wanted to see it again. I remembered it a bit differently, nice to refresh.

Thanks for the post, if you want the transcript, it may be on my old computer, which illustrates some of the weakness of putting things on computers, you never know if you will find them later. 🙂

 

[Carlsen Highway]

I only just saw this on Youtube and wanted to share a couplke of thoughts on this older thread.

Mr Rose did not know a lot about HCB and his brief was obviously simply to get Cartier BResson talking. HCB is an humble and elderly intellectual 94 year old, faced with a big time American TV interviewer and obvioulsy just didnt want to sound like an idiot.

Also, HCB was a bit deaf.

If you watch other documentaries about HCB including an early 60's on where they didnt show his face - HCB is absolutely voluble, chatters away in French the whole time.

You have to remember when HCB says his pictures are not import ant to him and that he is not a photographer and so forth - that the man hasnt been a "photographer" since the early 70's and had resigned Magnum in 1966. He had been quietly drawing nude models in his Paris apartment for the last 30 years.
If you interviewed HCB in 1960 he would have been quite a different animal. Remember he said once (in contratst to this interview)
"...I adore taking pictures."

When he died in 2004 I handn't been doing photography for quite a long while, but I downed tools and went and had a quiet coffee in honour of the man.