HCB Appreciation

[cliveh]

Indeed, my liking of Bresson is because he embodies my own values of composition and timing, but photography has many values and different people will rate different photographers after their own values.

 

[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?

And by the way this photo says nothing about Black people celebrating Easter in Harlem.
It could be about a young girl contemplating before getting married to the guy looking at her, or about a normal Sunday morning before going to church. The reality of a photograph is a fake reality. And I am not sure it is meant to document the Easter in Harlem. In my opinion it speaks about nothing but also about a lot more. I am not sure if I am understood but I have a feeling that that is what HCB was drawn too. And he gave a context of the photo as vague as possible, letting the photo speak for itself.

 

[nikos79]

Indeed, my liking of Bresson is because he embodies my own values of composition and timing, but photography has many values and different people will rate different photographers after their own values.

Yes but Clive the problem is that many people rate photographers on values that have nothing to do with photography e.g. cultural significance, overstructured concept to be communicated, or personal background of the artist.|

I very much respect your opinion because you always approach photographers on purely photographic terms

 

[cliveh]

Yes but Clive the problem is that many people rate photographers on values that have nothing to do with photography e.g. cultural significance, overstructured concept to be communicated, or personal background of the artist.|

I very much respect your opinion because you always approach photographers on purely photographic terms

I would also like to think that the general public appreciate asthetic values, otherwise why have art galleries.

 

[nikos79]

I would also like to think that the general public appreciate asthetic values, otherwise why have art galleries.

You are very romantic

 

[cliveh]

You are very romantic

Thanks.

 

[Don_ih]

values that have nothing to do with photography e.g. cultural significance

Cultural significance most definitely has a great amount to do with photography. It is why you ever end up seeing these photos in the first place: they are meaningful, they are significant - even if only within the appreciation of photography itself (which does constitute something like a culture).

 

[Alex Benjamin]

And by the way this photo says nothing about Black people celebrating Easter in Harlem.... And I am not sure it is meant to document the Easter in Harlem... And he gave a context of the photo as vague as possible, letting the photo speak for itself.

Title of the photo is literally Easter Sunday in Harlem, New York.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Easter Sunday in Harlem, New York. 1947 | MoMA https://share.google/MsyMKDC1vMEc8joGG