HCB Appreciation

[nikos79]

View attachment 410870

The Lionel Messi of composition.

Indeed you can't remove anything from this photo without spoiling it

 

[cliveh]

Indeed you can't remove anything from this photo without spoiling it

Indeed, look at the gap between what he carries under his arm and the shadow of the man in the distance. Also, the gap between the man in the distance and the shadow. The gap between the two shadows in the background. Perfection of composition and framing par excellance. That is why he was the best photographer of the 20th century.

 

[Milpool]

No.

 

[Don_ih]

No.

Maybe a slight amount more by way of explanation?

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Maybe a slight amount more by way of explanation?

Let me guess... :

he was the best photographer of the 20th century.

No.

Right ?

 

[Don_ih]

Well, Clive is entitled to his opinion. Personal opinions don't matter. Blankly stating "No", on the other hand, is a bit odd.

 

[nikos79]

Sometimes I like to compare HCB with Andre Kertesz. Despite their similarities and profound appreciation and admiration both had of each other I like to think of them as the yin and yang.
HCB is for sure the most famous photographer. Is he the best? Well he was an artist and it is hard to rank artists they all have something to offer. But listening to directors speak of Fellini, footballers of Ronaldo the phenomenon, and bballers of MJ, I see something similar to photographers speaking of HCB, a wide critical acclaim. Do I think he was the best? Probably not, although I admire him a lot. But for sure he was a man who COULD SEE and left us a legacy of at least 50 photos I personally love and tend to come over and over again.

 

[Don_ih]

You can say Cartier-Bresson was a very influential photographer. So was Ansel Adams. They were both very significant photographers but for output that was so disparate, comparison is borderline absurd. Was one better than the other - was one the best? Who cares. The individual photos they produced were good or not good - just like everyone else. The acclaim is more from their significance, which is socio-historical. They were and are important within a field of practice. Each one could be "bettered" in any number of ways by people who are unknown - and probably are. But being unknown tends to make a person insignificant to a field of practice - that highly limits their influence.

 

[cliveh]

I suppose HCB was the photographers photographer.

 

[Milpool]

Maybe some photographers’ photographer, which you can say about more or less anyone.

 

[nikos79]

You mean he was photographing other photographers?

 

[cliveh]

What I meant by my last statement is that if you are a photographer, you can understand what he is trying to do and in a large part succeeding.