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HCB Appreciation

koraks said:
Oh, I agree with that. I just wasn't aware we were discussing depth of field. Is there something similar going on with depth of field as with saturation and contrast?
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Yes I think we misunderstand each other. I was talking about fashion in print character. Maybe we are expecting more than fifty years later a different print than HCB ment it to be. That includes contrast and sharpness. Over the later we know HCB had an distinct view. By enhancing the contrast, you also mask lack of depth of field. I have seen quite a few original prints from HCB and they have softness we now easily call flat grey.
I don’t think HCB is well-known for his color work. So color saturation does seem to be a bit off topic.
 

I think those amateur photographer remarks are fine, if they are accompanied by an explanation as to why the suggestion is made. Something like: "if you remove that, it tends to increase my attention to this".
Photography being a communicative art, it is often helpful to know what others are getting from the communication.
Particularly when the original photographer may themselves not have considered the option.
 
The online representations of photographs often give no indication what the source was. I have numerous old books that have pretty lacklustre reproductions of photos in them. If you scanned one of those, you'd get a more soot-and-chalk representation of a print than perhaps you should. I like the copies made for auctions and exhibits and often search for one when I see a photo posted in a thread like this.
 
It would have been very interesting to see a contact sheet of HCB. To reveal the way he worked and his "success" rate. Was he really that selective in the so called "decisive" moment or part of his skill was a clear and sharp judgement afterwards in the selection process?
I would be very curious to see them
 
I've always had a question about one of HCB's pictures, the one of a French women being chastised by another woman as a NAZI collaborator after the liberation of Paris. That apparently identical frame exists in a film he made at the time, making me wonder if it was taken from the film.
 
nikos79 said:
Was he really that selective in the so called "decisive" moment or part of his skill was a clear and sharp judgement afterwards in the selection process?
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This has been talked about endlessly. It's well-established that he would take numerous photos, change position, wait for something to happen, etc. - the same as everyone else - and pick the ones he liked best after. Why would anyone expect any different?
 
I would never put myself in the same class as HCB.
But I would expect that we shared at least a little bit of the process - photography with a 35mm camera is often a process.
You work a scene: observe how things change as you, your camera settings, the light, and the subjects change.
And you let the observations made by you each time when you release the shutter inform you as you move toward adjusting to those observations before releasing the shutter again, and then again, and continuing until you are satisfied that you have at least one and preferably several photographs with strong possibilities. All with a mind toward the printing or post-processing stage.
 

Already answered here :

Robert Doisneau

I have a few of his books. I was looking at ........ 3 Seconds From Eternity. It really strikes that a lot of his (and many other photographers) pics were of "immediate" post-war Paris and France. Sort of that 1945-1949 period. I am sure there was all kinds of rubble, desperation, struggle...
www.photrio.com
 
A major part of what Cartier-Bresson did was when he did it. To a great extent, it's impossible to do what he did now.
 

Wow! Thanks for posting. These days it can seem like all this is forgotten.
 
cliveh said:
I could write a 500 word essay about this image and how it compares to a painting by someone I can't quite bring to mind at present.
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Have you remembered yet? I am intrigued to know. There are any number of Adoration paintings to choose from, but I can’t find one that compares. So it’s likely something else. Joseph Wright of Derby came to mind, but I drew a blank there too.
 
maybe El Greco?

 

Because films cost money too
But HCB was a very wealthy man

P.S. He also said that his photos are always a "Yes" never a "maybe". So I am curious to see if that was true
 
Selection is part of the process. You can select at various stages; before pressing the button, when deciding what to print, when deciding what to publish etc. There's no reason to assume that HCB exclusively selected at one particular point in the process. Like any other mortal, he did it at all stages. I think there's also nothing inherently interesting or valuable about selecting at one particular point. The "x% of my shots are keepers" is more about bragging rights than anything else. Who cares how you got there; the question is what you have to show by the end of it.
 
koraks said:
Who cares how you got there; the question is what you have to show by the end of it.
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Exactly! For us viewers and admirers of photography this is what matters.
Who cares if he gathered and staged the whole crowd, sat there all day long, or whether it was his last photo on the roll.

It could be interesting though if we want to follow some advice on the "process", to study how the masters did it.
 
nikos79 said:
He also said that his photos are always a "Yes" never a "maybe". So I am curious to see if that was true
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And does that mean any more than every photo of his that you see is the one he wanted to show you?

Firing a shutter only results in a photo when he shows you the print.
 
Don_ih said:
The most important aspect to what he did was to be there. The second was to watch.
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I would really question the first statement. Being there would give you a raw material. But HCB gives me the impression (as other photographers too) that even if he was locked in a prison cell he would make interesting photos
 
nikos79 said:
But HCB gives me the impression (as other photographers too) that even if he was locked in a prison cell he would make interesting photos
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Did he during the three years he was in prison? I'm sure he could have if he'd had a camera. Not many if he was just locked in a cell all day and night long every day.
 
Don_ih said:
Did he during the three years he was in prison? I'm sure he could have if he'd had a camera. Not many if he was just locked in a cell all day and night long every day.
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Didn't know he really went there!
 
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