Long-lost interview of HCB: "Living and looking".

[telenous]

The NYT Lens blog published yesterday (20/6) a long-lost 1971 interview HCB gave to journalist Sheila Turner-Seed. The recording of the interview, along with a few others conducted by her at the time, sat in ICP after her death in 1979 and were rediscovered recently by her daughter, herself a photographer. (Beside the obvious interest in the interview, there's also a human story in there. The daughter of Turner-Seed came upon this discovery as she was researching the work of her mother whom she didn't really know, as she died when she was just one year old. The recording offered her the possibility of listening to the voice of a mother she could not possibly remember.)

The interview is illuminating, for although Cartier-Bresson reiterates some well-known views of his, he also goes into some detail about the way he thought of photography around that time. A brief recording from the interview is also available.

Tomorrow Lens will publish the second part of the interview -- apparently that's the bit where Cartier-Bresson lambasts colour photography.

Link, here: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/...resson-living-and-looking/?smid=tw-share&_r=0


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[raytoei@gmail.com]

always wonderful to read up on another facet of a person. thanks for sharing.

 

[drewbarb]

The daughter in question, Rachel Seed, is a friend of mine (in fact, she photographed my wedding); she is currently working to bring all of this story, with many interviews and much more material together in a film called "A Photographic Memory" (A link to the kickstarter funding page for this project is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1774742582/a-photographic-memory )

Rachel is a really cool person and a wonderful photographer, and it is indeed a pretty interesting story. Thanks for posting on the subject.

 

[telenous]

The daughter in question, Rachel Seed, is a friend of mine (in fact, she photographed my wedding); she is currently working to bring all of this story, with many interviews and much more material together in a film called "A Photographic Memory" (A link to the kickstarter funding page for this project is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1774742582/a-photographic-memory )

Rachel is a really cool person and a wonderful photographer, and it is indeed a pretty interesting story. Thanks for posting on the subject.

That's very cool, Drew. Please pass my compliments to your friend for her research and work. To be honest, I kinda knew what I'd be reading from Cartier-Bresson in the interview, however the story of the daughter trying to 'find' her mother through the interviews was captivating. There's a photo somewhere in the middle of the article of the mother and her baby-daughter that I find very moving. I will follow her effort with great interest.

By the way today Lens published the second part. Some strong views by Cartier-Bresson, as was to be expected. Link, here: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/cartier-bresson-there-are-no-maybes/?_r=0

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