Can you explain why HCB chose this photo?

[baachitraka]

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Santa brought me this wonderful book. It is a re-issue, so it includes a few more images than when first published. The photo that started this thread seems a lot more comprehensible in this context, there being several others with geometric compositions where the theme is landscape and its cultural history. The lack of polish of this photo simply looks in keeping with others of the same decade, and given the context that @Alex Benjamin discovered, one can surmise that it must have had a special significance for HCB. I’ve quite grown to like it through the course of this thread.
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Its still three parallel lines of trees for me...

 

[baachitraka]

HCB does not cut the head off anything. Rather he excluded the head of the horse as the farmer and his expression is of more interest. Just as he excluded the face of the mother in this image to put the emphasis on the child..

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Only HCB can shoot subjects as such without catching any 'karma'. I personally would not even go near...

 

[Pieter12]

Its still three parallel lines of trees for me...

And so?

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Just as he excluded the face of the mother in this image to put the emphasis on the child..

Actually, what he wanted to do, in typical HCB fashion, was to establish a visual correspondance between the ribs of the boy, the shape of the mother's hand, and the wheel.

 

[cliveh]

Actually, what he wanted to do, in typical HCB fashion, was to establish a visual correspondance between the ribs of the boy, the shape of the mother's hand, and the wheel.

Yes we can see that from the image. My point was about exclusion of the mother.

 

[Pieter12]

Actually, what he wanted to do, in typical HCB fashion, was to establish a visual correspondance between the ribs of the boy, the shape of the mother's hand, and the wheel.

Possibly. But did he sacrifice more emotion for the sake of composition? Maybe by that time, he was inured to such sights and preferred seeking parallel shapes in unlikely settings. We'll never know, unless he shot one framed more to the left.

 

[baachitraka]

And so?

that is all he saw on that moment....

 

[cliveh]

Possibly. But did he sacrifice more emotion for the sake of composition? Maybe by that time, he was inured to such sights and preferred seeking parallel shapes in unlikely settings. We'll never know, unless he shot one framed more to the left.

How can you possibly make that statement when you have no idea what was to the left?

 

[Harry Callahan]

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Here is more of the black wall and the wire fence to the left.
The garden picture we had here before was cropped on the left.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Yes we can see that from the image. My point was about exclusion of the mother.

So was mine

 

[Pieter12]

How can you possibly make that statement when you have no idea what was to the left?

I only assume it is the mother.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

did he sacrifice more emotion for the sake of composition?

You're separating two things that in his mind (and eye) were inseparable.

Excerpt from the preface of The Decisive Moment : "In a photograph, composition is the result of a simultaneous coalition, the organic coordination of elements seen by the eye. One does not add composition as though it were an afterthought superimposed on the basic subject material, since it is impossible to separate content from form."

 

[Pieter12]

You're separating two things that in his mind (and eye) were inseparable.

Excerpt from the preface of The Decisive Moment : "In a photograph, composition is the result of a simultaneous coalition, the organic coordination of elements seen by the eye. One does not add composition as though it were an afterthought superimposed on the basic subject material, since it is impossible to separate content from form."

People make statements about hard and fast rules and their philosophy all the time. That doesn’t necessarily mean that is what they do in real life.

 

[Don_ih]

Here is more of the black wall and the wire fence to the left.
The garden picture we had here before was cropped on the left.

The picture as shown in the more recent post is considerably better than in the first.

It's also from a different negative. It's not the same photo.

Just like the Time Warp, it's just a jump to the left...

 

[Alex Benjamin]

People make statements about hard and fast rules and their philosophy all the time. That doesn’t necessarily mean that is what they do in real life.

Cartier-Bresson's work is ample proof that he's one of those who does.

 

[cliveh]

Cartier-Bresson's work is ample proof that he's one of those who does.

Amen.

 

[Mike Lopez]

Maybe the pope isn’t really Catholic. But I think he probably is.

 

[snusmumriken]

The picture as shown in the more recent post is considerably better than in the first.

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It's also from a different negative. It's not the same photo.

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Just like the Time Warp, it's just a jump to the left...

Wow! 10/10 for observation! But isn’t that fascinating in itself? He took more than one shot of the scene, both were considered publication-worthy, and there is no consistent view as to which is better.

 

[jeffreyg]

HBC was friends with Atget. I have an Atget book “From My Window “ could be some connection?
A number of years ago while in Paris we were at the HBC institute. My wife’s first language is French and we struck up a conversation with someone who was the director. He called HBC to see if we could visit but he couldn’t make it that day and we could come the next day but we were leaving Paris that day and missed out It would have been interesting

 

[cliveh]

HBC was friends with Atget. I have an Atget book “From My Window “ could be some connection?
A number of years ago while in Paris we were at the HBC institute. My wife’s first language is French and we struck up a conversation with someone who was the director. He called HBC to see if we could visit but he couldn’t make it that day and we could come the next day but we were leaving Paris that day and missed out It would have been interesting

That HCB was a friend of Atget I find hard to believe. HCB was only 19 when Atget died.

 

[jeffreyg]

According to the web they were friends and HBC’s early work was influenced by Atget’s. I am friends with one of the top photojournalists and I have children who are ten years older than him.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

You're separating two things that in his mind (and eye) were inseparable.

Excerpt from the preface of The Decisive Moment : "In a photograph, composition is the result of a simultaneous coalition, the organic coordination of elements seen by the eye. One does not add composition as though it were an afterthought superimposed on the basic subject material, since it is impossible to separate content from form."

I'm sure that, like the rest of us, when he gets home and looks at the results, he wishes he had composed the shots a little differently. Giving him some Godlike status is just over the top. He's human and made mistakes like the rest of us. No one's perfect. He probably wished he had included the horse's head and the woman's whole body.

 

[Pieter12]

Cartier-Bresson's work is ample proof that he's one of those who does.

Like his Man Jumping Puddle.

 

[Mike Lopez]

I'm sure that, like the rest of us, when he gets home and looks at the results, he wishes he had composed the shots a little differently. Giving him some Godlike status is just over the top. He's human and made mistakes like the rest of us. No one's perfect. He probably wished he had included the horse's head and the woman's whole body.

I wish I had this level of certainty about everything in life, even when I’m utterly clueless about something.

 

[Arthurwg]

HCB does not cut the head off anything. Rather he excluded the head of the horse.....

That's what happened to Marie Antoinette. Her head was "excluded" from her body.