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.

 

[Don_ih]

I suppose HCB was the photographers photographer.

For many photographers. But he's also very well known among plenty of non-photographers.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Interesting quote I just stumbled upon:

In 2001, in a letter to Peter Galassi, chief curator of the photography department at MoMA, Cartier-Bresson wrote: “If it had not been for the challenge of the work of Walker Evans, I don’t think I would have remained a Fotographer.”

Reminds me of this other quote: "An artist is someone who tries to answer the questions raised by the works of other artists."

Interesting also because one wouldn't immediately think of associating these two photographers, even if, as this article states (complete text here), “Evans and Cartier-Bresson have one essential thing in common, something almost immediately recognized in New York (but ignored in Paris): they became artists by reinventing photography.”

I realize I've always underestimated the impact of the travels Cartier-Bresson made in the US in 1946 and 1947, and how they might have contributed to shape his vision of the world—perhaps more pessimistic than what I thought.

 

[nikos79]

Interesting quote I just stumbled upon:

In 2001, in a letter to Peter Galassi, chief curator of the photography department at MoMA, Cartier-Bresson wrote: “If it had not been for the challenge of the work of Walker Evans, I don’t think I would have remained a Fotographer.”

Reminds me of this other quote: "An artist is someone who tries to answer the questions raised by the works of other artists."

Interesting also because one wouldn't immediately think of associating these two photographers, even if, as this article states (complete text here), “Evans and Cartier-Bresson have one essential thing in common, something almost immediately recognized in New York (but ignored in Paris): they became artists by reinventing photography.”

I realize I've always underestimated the impact of the travels Cartier-Bresson made in the US in 1946 and 1947, and how they might have contributed to shape his vision of the world—perhaps more pessimistic than what I thought.

This reminds me of Scorsese's essay on Fellini, when he said at that era it was magical, all directors were posing "questions" to other directors with their work and it was a fascinating period exploring the art of cinema. I guess something similar happened to photography

 

[Don_ih]

I personally like Walker Evans' photos more than that of Cartier-Bresson. I recognize the world and people in Evans' photos much more readily than in those by Cartier-Bresson - and that has nothing to do with location.

 

[nikos79]

I have the book HCB in America. His photographs are very different than the ones of Walker Evans. As if himself has imposed a European "flair" on them.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

As if himself has imposed a European "flair" on them.

I don't know what that means.

 

[nikos79]

I don't know what that means.

This was mostly Gilles Mora opinion which I party agree, that people who photographed America can be split into 6 categories:
1. Those in the spirit of American documentary (19th century landscapists, to Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, via Evans
2. Those by foreigners (Robert Frank, HCB, Plossu, etc.)
3. Those who teach us more about photography than America (Stieglitz, Weston, Gibson, ..)
4. The opposite of the above (Farm Security Administration)
5. Those that do both of 3 and 4 (Evans, Friedlander, etc.)
6. The cinematic American photography

 

[nikos79]

Mostly in the sense that HCB America was a very personal almost "private" thing. That it was most about himself than America

 

[Alex Benjamin]

That it was most about himself than America

How is that discernible in the photographs themselves?

 

[Alex Benjamin]

To put it in another way: how is this photograph more about Henri Cartier-Bresson than it is about Black people celebrating Easter in Harlem?

 

[nikos79]

How is that discernible in the photographs themselves?

Ask Gilles Mora, I am also kind of puzzled

 

[nikos79]

To put it in another way: how is this photograph more about Henri Cartier-Bresson than it is about Black people celebrating Easter in Harlem?

Easy: the geometry, the look, the juxtaposition of the two figures is very HCB

 

[nikos79]

Brilliant photograph btw, although my favorite from HCB in America is the two black kids looking at different directions above a bridge