HCB Quotes

erikg said:

Quantum physics would seem to suggest we can't observe without also altering the event. I don't know about that but I do think the best street shooters make use of their own presence to get more of what they are after.

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We may be altering the "event" but we're not photographing the event. We're photographing subjects in the "event". And we are not necessarily changing those subjects in any way.

As for altering the subjects to get what we are after, or staging, perhaps if the shot doesn't "appear" staged, then we have successfully achieved our goal.

Remember a motion picture (movie) is an entirely staged event, but that doesn't mean the emotion and magic between the people isn't real and doesn't necessarily affect us as spectators any differently than a real event. There were a lot of people crying during the movie Titanic. And some for the right reasons. Obviously some because they could never get those 2 hours and their money back.

blansky said:

As for altering the subjects to get what we are after, or staging, perhaps if the shot doesn't "appear" staged, then we have successfully achieved our goal.

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I think HCB understood that the goal isn't always an unstaged look.

In Gene's(*) photographs there is something which throbs, something always tremulant. They are taken between the shirt and the skin. Anchored between the shirt and the skin – at the heart – his camera moves even by its passionate integrity. - Henri Cartier-Bresson - (* W. Eugene Smith's)

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http://www.threepennyreview.com/gallery/111cover_f07.html

Eye contact is a magical thing.

I remember the first time I met you Michael, I envisioned you to be a lot smaller than you actually are.
I can see how you were a bouncer at some time in your past.
Its nice seeing you post here now.

blansky said:

As for the "decisive moment", I've seem lots of great photographers miss the moment. Often by tenths of seconds.

I've seen portrait photographers that missed the magic in a smile because they got it after it peaked. It was on the downside. The sparkle
left the eyes. Tenth or maybe hundred of a second, but they missed it.

I would bet in street photography having the second sense of when the magic will occur is a practiced thing as well as a innate thing. HCB obviously had it.

For two years I worked as a bouncer in a bar. I could watch people and know exactly when to step in just before it got ugly. You can feel it. Body language, can tell you everything.

I'd bet in street photography you develop a second sense on when something will happen and you just position yourself for that event, AS WELL as when the street itself and your location has good composition.

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markbarendt said:

I think HCB understood that the goal isn't always an unstaged look.



http://www.threepennyreview.com/gallery/111cover_f07.html

Eye contact is a magical thing.

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Staging is an interesting thing. Suppose Smith just walked into that room and what you see is the reaction that happened naturally. OR suppose he set those people in those chairs and placed the guy at the door and then set up the shot and told them to look at him. The guy being a no nonsense conservative kind of guy just looks like that.

Is there a different impact to the photograph.

I have an interesting thing I do while doing portraits. The body is set, the lighting is set and everything is set. Then I just talk to them. I do this a lot with kids. I just ask questions about them, their pets, their girlfriends/boyfriends, etc.......The shot is staged, obviously. But their mind isn't. It's moving and reacting. The wheels are turning. And the facial muscles and eyes are reflecting that.


I do this with adults sometimes. Everything is set. Then I say, think about this ???. Then think about your first kiss. Think about your last birthday, think about your deceased father....etc etc. Same thing. Stages shot but the mind is moving. Emotions are coming out. Sometime they cry, or laugh or they get melancholy or whatever.

With brides and fathers I used to manipulate them by getting them to look into each others faces and maybe half the time the father would start to get teary eyed.

The shot of VE day with the sailor and the nurse ( I think it was), could be setup just by telling the guy to "dip" her. Total setup. But the emotions that they then exhibit are real.

Staging is interesting.

Bob Carnie said:

I remember the first time I met you Michael, I envisioned you to be a lot smaller than you actually are.
I can see how you were a bouncer at some time in your past.
Its nice seeing you post here now.

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Thanks Bob.

One day I'll get back up to Toronto.