Why HCB uses a 50mm lens

[Dogman]

Perhaps the creation of images was enough for Ms Maier. Perhaps in her mind that was success.

 

[Capt. E]

His composure being like this is corroborated in eyewitness accounts, including times he did not know he was being watched by fellow photographers. I don't have a link handy, but Joel Meyerowitz has a story where he and Garry Winogrand were out shooting and saw someone who looked like HCB darting around with his camera with agility, at one point having to fend someone off by lobbing his camera at them (he had held onto it with the strap). When Meyerowitz and Winogrand approached him asking if he was Henri Cartier-Bresson, he first asked if they were police. When they said no, he confirmed his identity and agreed to meet them later to go shooting.

Meyerowitz and Winogrand are among my favorites. Very different photographers, but both with a fabulous body of work. Good examples of how the camera being used affects the results.

 

[GMOG]

If I am right you are referring to working intuitively

Yes, that's it.

I believe it may have something to do with HCB's preference for the 50. It was a length that fit with how he saw the world, and as such allowed him to avoid having to translate what he saw into other focal lengths.

 

[CMur12]

I think when we look back at HCB from today's perspective, what he accomplished might not be as impressive. What we might forget is that he was a pioneer of (relatively) early photography. There weren't many other photographers to study in his time as mentors. He struck out and invented something new. He gave street photography a new direction with his light, agile camera. And he did it with a message, with great composition, with good exposure, and with good overall image quality. Much of this was new to him.

I'm not generally a fan of street photography, as I see much of it that emphasizes content to the exclusion of composition, good exposure, and image quality. I'm more interested in the graphic qualities of a photograph, so my emphasis and primary interest are different from those of many street photographers.

That being said, I admire the vision and the work of HCB and I am wowed by the work of Vivian Maier.

- Murray

 

[boojum]

<snip>

That being said, I admire the vision and the work of HCB and I am wowed by the work of Vivian Maier.

- Murray

There it is, the nubbin, the inescapable reality.

 

[raydm6]

This guy was a beast!

Is that an unsecured Barnack cradled in his right-bicep/forearm - I see the strap wrapped around his wrist? (Shooting with an early M3 and looks like a Rigid 50 Summicron - but they weren't out till 1956 right?)

This was shot by HCB's printer - Pierre Gassman c. 1955. Love the intensity - but relaxed focus - of his right eye.

PIERRE GASSMAN (1914-2004) , Henri Cartier-Bresson, c. 1955 | Christie's

 

[boojum]

This guy was a beast!

Is that an unsecured Barnack cradled in his right-bicep/forearm - I see the strap wrapped around his wrist? (Shooting with an early M3 and looks like a Rigid 50 Summicron - but they weren't out till 1956 right?)

This was shot by HCB's printer - Pierre Gassman c. 1955. Love the intensity - but relaxed focus - of his right eye.

PIERRE GASSMAN (1914-2004) , Henri Cartier-Bresson, c. 1955 | Christie's

<snip>

Practice makes perfect.

 

[Richard G]

This guy was a beast!

Is that an unsecured Barnack cradled in his right-bicep/forearm - I see the strap wrapped around his wrist? (Shooting with an early M3 and looks like a Rigid 50 Summicron - but they weren't out till 1956 right?)

This was shot by HCB's printer - Pierre Gassman c. 1955. Love the intensity - but relaxed focus - of his right eye.

PIERRE GASSMAN (1914-2004) , Henri Cartier-Bresson, c. 1955 | Christie's

Another reason for Henri to use a 50. He maintains use of the right eye in the portrait orientation. I switch to my left to stay close to the VF. Once these M cameras came along he’d have been better with an M2 which I think he did take up, but he would have had some trouble with the 35 frame lines and not long after this photo he was in glasses.

Don’t try his Barnack trick at home. (I suspect the wrist strap there is attached to it, not the M3.

 

[Richard G]

That lens has a front ring Wetzlar but it’s more likely a 1.5. Definitely not the Summicron.

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/dmitri-kessel-henri-cartier-bresson-y-su-leica-m3

 

[Pál_K]

I will play the typical annoying internet critic and say he should keep his arm lowered and snugged to the side.

I have to consciously do that with slow speeds or long lenses.

 

[telenous]

That lens has a front ring Wetzlar but it’s more likely a 1.5. Definitely not the Summicron.

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/dmitri-kessel-henri-cartier-bresson-y-su-leica-m3

Good catch. The three serrated rings indicate a Summarit 50/1.5. The hood is probably custom made (?)

 

[raydm6]

+1 Good catch

 

[Archlich]

Something popped up in my mind, which might again relate to this topic, is Moriyama Daido and his supposed connection to the Ricoh GR cameras and the 28mm focal length.

But the man really began his career with a Minolta SR2, a Nikon S2 (with the 25/4) and later when he was really pushing for the avant-garde, a Pentax Spotmatic. The iconic 1971 Stray Dog was taken with a Takumar 105/2.8 lens, but you'd never see a self-claimed Moriyama follower lugging a mid-telephoto mounted SLR around today.

By the mid 1990s when the GR1 turned up he really had been shooting with anything he had at hand, which quite notably to many of us, included a shipload of the cheapest Nikon Coolpix cameras that he would shoot hard, break and throw away. Studying his photography you'd realize the post-2013 Ricoh GR with APS-C sensors, which offered very fine image quality, would not be his cup of tea.

But the (IMO consumerist in natural) myth, and the built-in one button "Daido mode" preset in Ricoh cameras, continue to live on.

 

[jbielikowski]

I suggest reading Henri Cartier-Bresson: Interviews and Conversations (1951-1998) by Aperture, by the end of the book you'll know not to believe HCB words, he loved to troll his interviewers, especially when older.

Then you can Google his famous Summicron... 35mm.

I can't find it now but in one of the YT videos with William Klein, he stated that when he first arrived in NY he got "whole kit Bresson was getting rid of", including the 28mm Klein used almost exclusively.

Whole life HCB was creating his "image", and then Leica used it for marketing, don't believe them.

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

Something popped up in my mind, which might again relate to this topic, is Moriyama Daido and his supposed connection to the Ricoh GR cameras and the 28mm focal length.

But the man really began his career with a Minolta SR2, a Nikon S2 (with the 25/4) and later when he was really pushing for the avant-garde, a Pentax Spotmatic. The iconic 1971 Stray Dog was taken with a Takumar 105/2.8 lens, but you'd never see a self-claimed Moriyama follower lugging a mid-telephoto mounted SLR around today.

By the mid 1990s when the GR1 turned up he really had been shooting with anything he had at hand, which quite notably to many of us, included a shipload of the cheapest Nikon Coolpix cameras that he would shoot hard, break and throw away. Studying his photography you'd realize the post-2013 Ricoh GR with APS-C sensors, which offered very fine image quality, would not be his cup of tea.

But the (IMO consumerist in natural) myth, and the built-in one button "Daido mode" preset in Ricoh cameras, continue to live on.

@archlich—Interesting! I am a big fan of Moriyama's work, but I never knew he used a Spotmatic or a telephoto lens. As it happens, I have a couple of Pentax M42 cameras, a 105mm f/2.8 Super Takumar, and a dog. That's my photography plans for the weekend sorted.

 

[telenous]

I suggest reading Henri Cartier-Bresson: Interviews and Conversations (1951-1998) by Aperture, by the end of the book you'll know not to believe HCB words, he loved to troll his interviewers, especially when older.

Then you can Google his famous Summicron... 35mm.

I can't find it now but in one of the YT videos with William Klein, he stated that when he first arrived in NY he got "whole kit Bresson was getting rid of", including the 28mm Klein used almost exclusively.

Whole life HCB was creating his "image", and then Leica used it for marketing, don't believe them.

I don't think it's all that bad. He may have toyed with the interviewers a little bit. Once you get asked for the umpteenth time the same thing you are (or should be) allowed a little bit of fun. Some of the interviewers must have been hard to work with, I am sure. The interviews are probably not a good place to look, the forward to the Decisive Moment or the Mind's Eye are better. There you see the ideal he had in mind. Did he unfailingly do what he preached, no. But he did indeed use a Leica and predominantly a 50mm, it's not a conspiracy to fool everyone. That said, I agree he was acerbic when criticizing other styles of photography and that comes across a little preachey. Bill Eggleston has a nice story about that.

 

[ptpdprinter]

But he did indeed use a Leica and 50mm, it's not a conspiracy to fool everyone.

I think that is well established.

 

[jsrockit]

Something popped up in my mind, which might again relate to this topic, is Moriyama Daido and his supposed connection to the Ricoh GR cameras and the 28mm focal length.

But the man really began his career with a Minolta SR2, a Nikon S2 (with the 25/4) and later when he was really pushing for the avant-garde, a Pentax Spotmatic. The iconic 1971 Stray Dog was taken with a Takumar 105/2.8 lens, but you'd never see a self-claimed Moriyama follower lugging a mid-telephoto mounted SLR around today.

By the mid 1990s when the GR1 turned up he really had been shooting with anything he had at hand, which quite notably to many of us, included a shipload of the cheapest Nikon Coolpix cameras that he would shoot hard, break and throw away. Studying his photography you'd realize the post-2013 Ricoh GR with APS-C sensors, which offered very fine image quality, would not be his cup of tea.

But the (IMO consumerist in natural) myth, and the built-in one button "Daido mode" preset in Ricoh cameras, continue to live on.

Don't forget the Olympus Pen-W for his NYC work in 1971. I do believe he did use the GR film cameras for at least a few years because he spoke of them breaking after 500 rolls always. However, I am not so sure ever used the digital ones much at all. Those 20x zoom coolpixes seem to be his cameras of choice for years now. Also, saw it somewhere where he had the Sony RX0 one time. I would imagine companies give him gifts and he just uses whatever.

 

[ptpdprinter]

Is it possible that HCB primarily used a 50mm lens because the viewfinders for the Barnack Leicas and M3 he used were 50mm?

 

[jsrockit]

Is it possible that HCB primarily used a 50mm lens because the viewfinders for the Barnack Leicas and M3 he used were 50mm?

Yes, I am sure it began that way and then he was just accustomed to it over time.