Remembering Henry Cartier-Bresson

[wblanchard]

I was reading more quotes and facts about him and began to realize how he influenced a lot of us here. It amazes me that his compositions were so good that he never once cropped a photo. How many of us can make such a claim?

Favorite quote about using a flash:

Cartier-Bresson would sooner have died than photograph with flash. "Impolite," he famously said once, "like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand."

 

[Solinar]

A flash is indeed impolite.

A flash is indeed impolite.

How many of us can make such a claim?

Not I and today I'm going to shoot some photos with my Zorki 3 in his honor. The only flash unit it uses is tungsten light stands, plugged into wall outlets.

 

[back alley]

i have read various takes on that no cropping thing.
hcb did not do his own darkroom work (frank!) and his printer seemed to indicate that some cropping happened at times.

joe

 

[wblanchard]

if he took the same pictures today would he be heralded as a genius?

 

[back alley]

i would still like his work.
but then again, he is an influence on how/what i shoot- so how could i NOT like his work...

joe

 

[wblanchard]

He supposedly used a Leica for most of his images. If that is true, then how come most of his images don't show that magical "leica" look that you see today? Maybe the film that was available back then...? I would expect his images to be more crisp and sharp.

 

[Peter]

What really inspires me about HCB was his Zen like approach to photography. His simplicity in approach and his intense concentration.

 

[thpook]

Part of the reason I like HCB is because he took great photos, and horrible photos. If I remember correctly, he'd generally make sure some of his bad photos were displayed during exhibitions so nobody'd be able to say "This guy never takes bad photos!"

Anyway, like him or not he has influenced photography a great deal. All the Magnum guys did.

 

[einolu]

Im not sure if the Elmar 3,5 had Leica glow, that came later, heh (I hear he used a Leica III).

Anyway, I like the guys work. Also have to admire him for setting up Magnum.

 

[Matthew]

Regarding sharpness in HCB photos: I don't have the exact quote in front of me but I think he said something like, "sharpness is a bourgeois concept." That attitude, combined with the technology of the early years of his career, is probably the cause of some of his images not having the degree of Leica glow you would expect. His later photos, including the few he took in the years before his death, do have that "glow."

My favourite personal story about him, and it's only an indirect story, was when I met a another rather famous photographer. After having a couple of drinks, I half-jokingly asked him if he had Henri Cartier Bresson's phone number. Without saying anything, he pulls out a tattered address book out of his jacket pocket, flips a few pages and plunks it down on the table. His phone number was right there at the top of the page. Even at viewing his phone number I was in awe. It's silly, I know.

 

[kiev4a]

He supposedly used a Leica for most of his images. If that is true, then how come most of his images don't show that magical "leica" look that you see today? Maybe the film that was available back then...? I would expect his images to be more crisp and sharp.

The difference in film would be a factor. For instance the Tri-X of today has little in commom with the Tri-X introduced in the 1950s. It had gravel-sized grain. It's only saving quality was it could produce photos in dimly lit areas.

That's not to say all of the old films were bad. Back in the '70s I developed a roll of Panatomic X that was shot in 1942 in North Africa. The images had suffered but I was able to get some decent prints.

 

[RubenBlaedel]

I like him to - and of cause he would not get the same attention if he had started photographing today - mainly because he already have influenced our look on photography. The cropping thing is totally irrellevant - I could not care les how much or little he cropped his pictures. I ran thru som old magazines form the early 1950ties and there were an essay on french photographers and HCB was one of them - I had not seen the pictures before, but damn - the were good.
All eras have masters in art, litterature and in photography - from the past 50 years we all could mention 5,10 perhaps even more that were great - and in another 50 years there will be another 5, 10 or more great photographers to be remembered. Non wil probably compare to HCB because in order to be great you most be you and not sombody else.
HCB, AVADON, NEWTON, SALGADO, MARK, ARBUS, SHERMAN - are all great and are all different. HCB can be an inspirationto to all of us - I understand he and Eisenstadt (sorry cant spell his name) were both gentlemen and still managed to get great shots - they keept their integrety - standards - ethics - and doing just that will with a lttle bit of talent, and a little bit of luck and a hell of a lot of hard work bring anyone far.

 

[wblanchard]

HCB and Margaret Bourke-White both changed the way I look at the world through my camera. It's mainly Margarets work that made me switch to black and white photography, but HCB taught me to use Hyperfocal distance techniques and just enjoy shooting in the streets.

 

[peter_n]

The cropping story is apocryphal. However I understand that he did state that sharpness is a bourgeois concept and I sort of agree with him. Its the image content and composition of his pictures we are so taken with not the sharpness or the background.

I recently got a book about André Kertész (who I had not heard of before but then I'm an ignorant sod 🙁) and found out that he was an enormous influence on HCB. You look at some of the pictures in this book and they are really amazing and Kertész didn't get half the recognition that HCB got. But he came before HCB and influenced that whole generation.

 

[TPPhotog]

He was a human just like the rest of us and as such had good and bad days. From what I've read and seen in a couple of art programmes about him, he saw photography as an extension of his painting and as such it was the picture not the technical quality that he wanted to capture. When he was complimented on his photography his stock comment was simply "BS".

Love or hate his work I would be amazed if anyone who shoots in the street hasn't been influenced by his work in some way.

My favorite quote of his "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst" 🙂

 

[wblanchard]

The cropping story is apocryphal. However I understand that he did state that sharpness is a bourgeois concept and I sort of agree with him. Its the image content and composition of his pictures we are so taken with not the sharpness or the background.

I recently got a book about André Kertész (who I had not heard of before but then I'm an ignorant sod 🙁) and found out that he was an enormous influence on HCB. You look at some of the pictures in this book and they are really amazing and Kertész didn't get half the recognition that HCB got. But he came before HCB and influenced that whole generation.

You would enjoy this book then: http://www.getty.edu/bookstore/titles/kertesz.html

 

[ErnestoJL]

One way or another HCB did influence Us all, be it either suggesting Us to have a Leica, or walking down streets with a loaded camera....never with a flash or a tele, just a normal lens, with just available light and an exceptional sense of situation, lighting, distance and sharpness to the subject. If he did or not crope pictures...does it really matter?

 

[Bertram2]

He supposedly used a Leica for most of his images. If that is true, then how come most of his images don't show that magical "leica" look that you see today? Maybe the film that was available back then...? I would expect his images to be more crisp and sharp.

I own several books of him and I have noticed too that the pics from the 30s,40s and early 50s look different from the later work.
There are many reasons for that difference in quality. First the the 35mm films
were not comparable to what we can buy for cheap money today. Film technology brought much more inrease of quality since the 30s than lens technology, tho the non coated lenses of those days could cause bad problems under certain circumstances.

Leica or not, the early 35mm lens/film combos were really poor compared to what we are used to nowadays. BTW the main reasons why many did not jump ever on this format but kept their Rolleis and Voigtlaenders MF cameras in Europe, Kertesz, Doisneau and others.

Another point is that HCB did not care ever too much about technical quality and it seems that in the first 20 years he was not interested in that issue at all. Blurred, underexposed, tilted, mis-focused, all that happened frequently and some of his photos i would not have put in a book because of that, tho they were mostly interesting concerning their artistic content.

From about 1955 on there is an obvious increase of technical quality , still getting better in the 60 and 70s, because of better film and lenses and print technology, which is very important too. HCB still did not care too much about it and the joke he once made ( sharpness is a bourgeois concept ) in a conversation with Hemut Newton is only half a joke. The other half is his artistic credo indeed it think.

So far it was to expect that he would go back to drawing only, where he once came from.
Regards,
Bertram

 

[jaapv]

He was a human just like the rest of us and as such had good and bad days. From what I've read and seen in a couple of art programmes about him, he saw photography as an extension of his painting and as such it was the picture not the technical quality that he wanted to capture. When he was complimented on his photography his stock comment was simply "BS".

Love or hate his work I would be amazed if anyone who shoots in the street hasn't been influenced by his work in some way.

My favorite quote of his "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst" 🙂

This site: http://gemeentearchief.amsterdam.nl/schatkamer/breitner/introductie/index.en.html

might interest you then; another, earlier painter-photographer, George Hendrik Breiner.

 

[wblanchard]

One way or another HCB did influence Us all, be it either suggesting Us to have a Leica, or walking down streets with a loaded camera....never with a flash or a tele, just a normal lens, with just available light and an exceptional sense of situation, lighting, distance and sharpness to the subject. If he did or not crope pictures...does it really matter?

everyone looks at images and see's something different. i don't think cropping matters at all. some people will like my original without crop and others will tell me to crop here and there to make it perfect. perfect to please who?

on a side note: I wish other photographers would get as much attention as HCB. Someone like Doisneau. I can see a couple kissing on a corner or in front of a building and hear someone comment: get a room. I look at the same couple and think of Dosineau's famous Kiss photo.