HCB Appreciation

Harry Callahan

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I`m sorry, my visionary eyes cannot see an animal (or a pig especially) this time... maybe there`s a squirrel somewhere hidden in the branches...

But to proof that i am really convinced of seeing a pig in HCB`s picture i did some dodging and burning to make it more obvious. I did not alter image information, just some burning on the holes of the nose, some dodging around the nose to make it more obvious etc. .

This is unedited:



Dodge+burn:



Now the pigs nose should be more obvious. Also what i found is that the nose is not in the middle of the pigs face, but a little to the right - as if the pig was looking to the right a bit.
If you now draw in the center of the picture...



...the pig actually could be looking at the center of the picture...



...which in turn could explain why HCB didn`t place the trees in the middle of the picture or to the right - because he also saw the pig and wanted it to look at the center of the picture...
...but who knows. Maybe i`m all wrong on this... but i`m sober! Honest man...
 
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cliveh

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Don_ih

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Actually pretty awkward-looking. The cigarette suggests to me they weren't planning on that - maybe they were asked to kiss. I think the dog is the most interesting part.
 
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cliveh

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Don_ih said:
Actually pretty awkward-looking. The cigarette suggests to me they weren't planning on that - maybe they were asked to kiss. I think the dog is the most interesting part.
Click to expand...

Well I think this picture is f****** brilliant and if you can produce an image anywhere near as good, please show me.
 

MattKing

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I imagined this as a caption:
Dog: "Heh - that's my job. Keep your paws off him!"
The awkwardness is actually part of the imagined narrative.
 
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cliveh

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Don_ih

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cliveh said:
Well I think this picture is f****** brilliant and if you can produce an image anywhere near as good, please show me.
Click to expand...

What's brilliant about it?

And what does it have to do with me? I routinely produce images that mean more to me than the sum total of Cartier-Bresson's photography (consider that I could have gone my entire life without knowing or caring who he was).

Clive, I like your photography and see no need to think of it in terms of a comparison with anyone (including HCB) - so cut the bullshit hero worship and spell out what's so good about that photo.
 

snusmumriken

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That photo could potentially have meant the world to the couple themselves, but surely its merit is shown by its appeal to a far, far wider audience. I’ve always thought it remarkable in its composition, timing, and daring (for want of a better word to describe the photographer’s intrusion). But then there has always been that nagging doubt that it could have been arranged, like Doisneau’s famous kissing couple. Admittedly the dog belies this thought. Interesting that HCB did not include it in his selection for the one-man exhibition that toured the world, yet did include others with less obvious appeal, as we have discussed before.
 

MattKing

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pentaxuser

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Don_ih said:
Actually pretty awkward-looking. The cigarette suggests to me they weren't planning on that - maybe they were asked to kiss. I think the dog is the most interesting part.
Click to expand...

Every picture tells a story. She is an innocent girl from "the sticks" who has persuaded her father to fund a cultural trip to the capital He has reluctantly agreed but hopes that she'd avoid the lure of Monmartre but alas she didn't and fell under its spell and that of the "dodgy garcon" who seemed harmless, sitting there with a dog as his prop

His face says that he does this on a regular basis and so far his strategy has never failed him

pentaxuser
 

nikos79

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One of the rarely cases where HCB did indeed crop the photo

What makes the photo appealing?
Is it the guy on the top left? The silver cross he wears? The bold guy? The woman's face? The other woman face that looks like a dark medieval painting? All of them together?
I think by cropping he made a carefully staged composition of all these elements that he wanted to keep in the photo like a skilled sculptor.
 

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snusmumriken

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Apply the Thumb Test: put your thumb over the guy top left and you’ll find that he is not essential to the main interest…although presumably if there was a gap there it would be distracting.
 

nikos79

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snusmumriken said:
Apply the Thumb Test: put your thumb over the guy top left and you’ll find that he is not essential to the main interest…although presumably if there was a gap there it would be distracting.
Click to expand...

Hmm I am not sure about that. The four corners are very important in a photo. They tend to draw the attention outside the frame. I did the test covered top left and bottom right corners to exclude the two figures and didn't find the photo the same
 
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