HCB Appreciation

[Arthurwg]

At the start of the process, the artist (HCB) recognises the picture he wants to capture with “yes!…yes!…yes!” (as he put it). Would you say that artist and viewer are recognising the same thing, that there is in fact something independent of both that each recognises? I can believe in there being a visual form that appeals to both parties, it’s the recognition bit that bothers me. It seems to imply that this something exists before the photo is taken - in which case, what is it? A bundle of shared cultural references?

Perhaps, but I'm not at all sure if the "Yes, Yes, Yes" of the photographer and the viewer actually coincide. Might be different for both, but the same on occasion. And perhaps the something that exists before the photo is taken is akin to Plato's Theory of Forms, but we'll have to ask Aristotle about this.

 

[Don_ih]

It's worth keeping in mind that a lot of what we want to see in a photo originates from how Cartier-Bresson took them.