What would HC Bresson Do?

What would HC Bresson Do?

  • I believe he would still use film. film has much more to offer, even now.

    Votes: 138 38.5%

  • He would go M9 for sure

    Votes: 165 46.1%

  • D700 after he nagged on forums about the M8 magenta problem

    Votes: 55 15.4%
  • Total voters
    358
I doubt he'd use an M9 it he did go digital, you may as well buy a gold plated diamond encrusted Swatch.
 
In all of his writings he used India ink, as he also did in many of his drawings. I think he was very aware of longevity and may have been very wary of the longevity of an electronically stored image. I actually recieved a postcard from him once and it was written with India ink.. Robbie Bedell

http://robbiebedell.photoshelter.com
 
Roger Hicks said:
Instead of one of the dozens of other full-frame digital M-mount rangefinder cameras on the market?

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't understand why no one other than Epsom has made one, no way would I buy a digital Leica M, but a cheaper body then yeah maybe one day.
 
ajuk said:
Yeah I don't understand why no one other than Epsom has made one, no way would I buy a digital Leica M, but a cheaper body then yeah maybe one day.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the answer is that there is negligible demand, coupled with the fact that it is very difficult to make one as small as an M9. Epson's was a heavy crop, not 24x36. And why wouldn't you buy a digital M? Surely, the only reason (unless you actually don't want one) is money: either you can't afford it, or you would rather spend the money on something else.

Personally I'd rather have an M9 than a newer car.

Cheers,

R.
 
Very few (if any) of us knew HCB personally. And like many famous people who lived a long life, he said many different things. Which, along with his photos, get pored over like sacred texts by people looking for answers to photography's fundamental questions. Different people will come up with many different answers, because we all have a different HCB in our minds.

So, let's suppose that the HCB I have in my mind were somehow alive today, as young and vigorous as the HCB who took the photos I admire, roughly 1934-1960. I think he would be eager to try digital, to see if it would help him take his kind of photos with more ease. I don't think he would like digital P&S cameras. The shutter lag would drive him nuts. SLRs were never his thing.

He might like the M9. In many ways, it would let him shoot the way he always did, but without the delay and hassle of winding and changing film. I don't think he'd care about the higher ISO limitations. A D700 is so unlike his style that I don't think he'd care that it had a usable ISO 6400. The Leica M suited him. The ISO 640 or 1250 of the M9 would be quite enough for him, and he'd probably leave it at 320 most of the time.

I do think he would be bothered by the louder shutter noise of M9. It might not matter on the streets of Paris, but it would matter indoors. I think he'd be less interested in Photoshop than he was with the darkroom. Somebody else would do that for him, in collaboration.

What might drive him crazy is digital's different tonality and limited dynamic range compared to film. Highlights that his printer would just burn in on film would be blown beyond repair on the M9. He'd have to learn to protect the highlights instead of exposing only for the important parts of the picture. I'm sure he could adapt, but I wonder if he would want to. He'd probably ask his printer to filter the color channels in different ways to arrive at a B&W tonality he liked. Perhaps something reasonably close to what he got with Ilford films, or perhaps something a bit different, but he'd want it to be consistent so he'd know what he was getting when he clicked the shutter.

So I'm sure HCB would try digital. He'd probably set his M9 on DNG with B&W JPG so he never saw the color image. Whether he'd *stay* with digital or go back to film is a toss-up. It depends on whether he and his printer could arrive at a "look" that was consistent with his style. And whether he could tolerate the dynamic range issues and the shutter noise.
 
Last edited:
Let me settle this once and for all:

If HCB were alive today. . . He'd be clawing, furiously, at the inside of his coffin-lid, trying to get out.
 
HCB didn't seem all that interested in technology or the processing end while he was alive. I doubt very much he'd care now. Probably he'd use whatever there was, and let his darkroom/photoshop guy worry about the problems. If he even thought about the digital/film issue, I can easily see him using one of the new Fuji cameras.
 
Teuthida said:
Well done.
Click to expand...

Thanks. The fact that only you got the joke, though, and everyone else is treating such fatuity with such gravity speaks poorly for the mob here.

So I'll revise and extend my remarks:

If HCB were alive today, after clawing his way out of his coffin, he'd take one look at this thread and never stop throwing up. Being a gentilehomme, he'd refrain from telling you all to go out and make some photographs.

I'm no gentilehomme and I'm no HCB, so I'll tell you. Go observe. Let someplace wash over you. Break it down. Put it together. Suss-out the light and line. With an M-9, an M-3 a Canonet or a a Sony NEX. Or whatever. It's a far better way of honoring the Frenchman than holding seances on what tool he'd use.
 
Since he never had to work a day in his life, I doubt very much he would have cared about anything that happened during or after his lifetime. He lived in the here and now.

He had no worries.
 
Bravo. Though I can't imagine it's easy, no matter how comfortable your existence, to outlive all your friends. Seems a photographer's lot, though, longevity is. Garry Winogrand and war photographers excepted, being immersed in the living and making photographs is quite the fountain of youth.
 
HamSammich said:
I'm no gentilehomme and I'm no HCB, so I'll tell you. Go observe. Let someplace wash over you. Break it down. Put it together. Suss-out the light and line. With an M-9, an M-3 a Canonet or a a Sony NEX. Or whatever. It's a far better way of honoring the Frenchman than holding seances on what tool he'd use.
Click to expand...

Completely agree. in my experience, there is an ironclad inverse relationship between interest in the "best" equipment and photographic vision. You have one or the other, but rarely have I seen a gearhead who produced anything other than stale recycled banalities.
 
chrismoret said:
He probably used film. He had no reason to switch, I've understand mr HCB 'outsourced' all his film-processing and printing work. :)
Click to expand...

For this exact reason I say he'd use digital today -

HCB was all about the image and not at all about the process, character or esthetic. In numerous interviews (and one documentary) his statements focus on the 'moment' captured in his images. Never once does he mention anything about the medium.

I think had he been handed a Nikon FM3a instead of an M3, he would probably never have become the Leica poster-boy of the 20th century.
 
My guess is that he'd probably have used both digital and film. Being about the image, to me at least, suggests using the tools to suit the job. There are occasions - for example, when you need to mix ISO due to variable lighting conditions - where digital might have the edge. Whether he'd "prefer" film to digital or vice versa is a different matter.
 
HCB was also a painter. This is very important. He was concerned with 2 important issues. Light. Geometry. Film has a totally different look from digital. It is actual light burning the film. Digital is 1 or 0. Numbers. Not half numbers, not fractions.I like digital but hate the problem of poor dynamic range. Please don't mention HDR that resembles "Lino-cuts".
HCB would have really enjoyed the control of color, in digital.I think he would go M9 or a small point and shoot digital! Portability,quick responses easy downloads would all be met with any small digital.
The Nikon D700 or D800 cannot compare to a Leica M methods. large, bulky, heavy, lenses are monster size, even the AF primes..
I am a street shooter mostly. The P/S fits me perfectly. Getting shots that were never possible with a larger camera! Even as small as Leica M,Canon AE series or my Nikon-F3. The last is HEAVY but very compact!
 
leicapixie said:
HCB was also a painter. This is very important. He was concerned with 2 important issues. Light. Geometry. Film has a totally different look from digital. It is actual light burning the film. Digital is 1 or 0. Numbers. Not half numbers, not fractions.I like digital but hate the problem of poor dynamic range.
Click to expand...

HCB shot in B&W mostly. Sensors are analog and photons exist in discrete digital quantities depending on how one "samples" them. We A/D them for economical convenience, but don't have to (think TV).

Digital can, therefore, given enough samples (data) completely emulate film in all respects. It's almost there and 2 more generations of sensors it will be.

HCB would have gone digital as he was about the cultural attitude of the capture all the way. Is style of shooting was as much about quantity as some esoteric quality ideal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom