HCB Appreciation

[cliveh]

I still come across HCB images I have never seen before and the other day found this one.

 

[GRHazelton]

A wonderful picture! I wonder, however, if HCB might get accosted as a potential child pornographer in today's depraved culture....

 

[cliveh]

How about this one?

 

[Peltigera]

I went to a HCB exhibition on Wednesday at the University of East Anglia (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts). 35mm negatives enlarged to about A1 size. Excellent and inspiring.

 

[hacked - sepiareverb]

That first one goes perfectly with your signature!

 

[cliveh]

Or this one:-

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I'm reading collection of his interviews. Two fundamental things I'm appertaining. Square is useless format and so are photography schools.

 

[cliveh]

I'm reading collection of his interviews. Two fundamental things I'm appertaining. Square is useless format and so are photography schools.

If what you mention is true, he is being unwise to dismiss square formats. Just look at the compositions by Bill Brandt. Photography schools are merely a start, thereafter a lifetime practice.

 

[cliveh]

Or this one:-

View attachment 161928

I have had this shot as a screen saver for some weeks and as much as I am a fan of HCB, I think this shot is arranged. The walker by the wall has his feet together. If you walk this does not happen (or only for an instant). Still a brilliant shot in terms of geometry and composition, but perhaps not a decisive moment. However, I may be wrong.

 

[eddie]

Clive- I'm not sure either way, but it doesn't look arranged to me. I'm pretty sure the person is using some kind of walking stick ( there is a shadow). If so, it wouldn't be unusual for an elderly person to move in a "shuffling" manner, keeping their feet close together. Again, just a guess on my part.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I enjoy HBC's photographs.

 

[cliveh]

I noticed this on Art Daily today. An image by HCB I have never seen before-

 

[cliveh]

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Henry Cartier-Bresson is to photography what Glenn Gould is to the music of J.S. Bach. HCB's brain was uniquely wired to see the world a certain, specific way, as Gould's brain was to hearing Bach's music a certain, specific way. For both: emotion through form, and the supreme organization and equilibrium of its elements.

 

[Pieter12]

Henry Cartier-Bresson is to photography what Glenn Gould is to the music of J.S. Bach. HCB's brain was uniquely wired to see the world a certain, specific way, as Gould's brain was to hearing Bach's music a certain, specific way. For both: emotion through form, and the supreme organization and equilibrium of its elements.

I wonder if HCB hummed along as he took pictures.

 

[snusmumriken]

I have had this shot as a screen saver for some weeks and as much as I am a fan of HCB, I think this shot is arranged. The walker by the wall has his feet together. If you walk this does not happen (or only for an instant). Still a brilliant shot in terms of geometry and composition, but perhaps not a decisive moment. However, I may be wrong.

I think it is genuinely spontaneous. The man has his left knee bent; and besides, as @eddie says, he is walking with a stick, so you shouldn’t expect a regular stride.

 

[snusmumriken]

I went to a HCB exhibition on Wednesday at the University of East Anglia (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts). 35mm negatives enlarged to about A1 size. Excellent and inspiring.

I can’t see anything about that on their website. Do you happen to know how much longer it will be on?

 

[Flighter]

I can’t see anything about that on their website. Do you happen to know how much longer it will be on?

Peltigera's post was back in August 2016!

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Peltigera's post was back in August 2016!

Fear the walking dead thread!

 

[snusmumriken]

Peltigera's post was back in August 2016!

Hahaha! Silly me! Oh well, at least it won’t be a scramble to get there.

 

[cliveh]

 

[bernard_L]

HCB was a great photographer. One of the greatest.
But there are some persisting myths:

• Not all his pictures were decisive moments see
  https://petapixel.com/2016/05/25/contact-sheets-story-behind-every-photo/
• He did not use exclusively the 50mm focal length. The picnic on the bank of the Marne river is clearly (imo) taken with a 35mm lens. And there are pictures of HCB with an auxiliary finder see e.g. (not the only one) :

Plus, he had a caustic/abrasive personality, as documented by some colleagues (sorry, I don't index all my reading) and from second-hand account (first-hand account by a friend). Granted, this has little to do with his artistry.

 

[Don_ih]

And there are pictures of HCB with an auxiliary finder

There are many photos of him using a finder with a 50mm lens on the camera. He seemed to like it. I don't know why, though, because of parallax.

That he "exclusively" used a 50mm lens doesn't mean he didn't try to use a 35.

And I think he probably regretted ever mentioning the "decisive moment". It would take forever for you to finish a roll of film if every shot absolutely had to be the decisive moment. Also, maybe it requires 10-15 photos of the same thing to get the decisive moment. Maybe this moment is a better decisive moment than that moment...

 

[Alex Benjamin]

He did not use exclusively the 50mm focal length.

An old myth indeed. As he said in a few interviews, on assignment, he carried with him a 35mm, a 50mm and a 90mm lens.

 

[snusmumriken]

It would take forever for you to finish a roll of film if every shot absolutely had to be the decisive moment. Also, maybe it requires 10-15 photos of the same thing to get the decisive moment. Maybe this moment is a better decisive moment than that moment...

I've always understood him to mean that there is a decisive moment when everything is right to press the button (even for a static subject, because you - the photographer - are moving) ... but not that there is only one such moment, nor that one cannot make several attempts to get it right and select the best one later.

Poor guy, he really didn't like being idolized.