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Spotlight - Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier Bresson is the father of photography. Considered a master of the candid spontaneity known as the Decisive Moment. Leica, his camera brand of choice also remains highly prestigious, in an attempt to recreate the feeling he had going out into the world with his 35mm and 50mm lens. He was also an early adapter of 35mm film, much more portable and discreet, still the most prestigious focal length to use 70 years later.
He pioneered photojournalism as an art form by traveling the world and capturing honest scenes of day-to-day life using his enthusiasm for geometry and art. A trained painter, a well read academic, lover of the surreal, he gave up on being a painter and failed at photography portraits. HCB took to the streets, leaving France to travel Asia. There he found his form of capturing society in its rawest poetic form, never really been seen before in popular culture. He later returned to France, after gaining inspiration he couldn’t find originally in his home country.
Greece 1961 - Particular attention to shape and light with a decisive moment of the child
During military conscription in 1931, he read Conrad's Heart of Darkness. This gave him the idea of escaping and finding adventure though he left after nearly dying from blackwater fever. Cartier-Bresson's first photojournalist published photos was in 1937 when he covered the English coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He focused on the new monarch's adoring subjects lining the London streets, and took no pictures of the king.
When World War II broke out in September 1939, Cartier-Bresson joined the French Army in the Film and Photo unit. He was captured and spent 35 months in prisoner-of-war camps doing forced labor under the Nazis. He twice tried and failed to escape from the prison camp, and was punished by solitary confinement. His third escape was successful and he hid on a farm before getting false papers that allowed him to travel in France. There, he worked for the underground, aiding other escapees and working secretly with other photographers to cover the Occupation to the Liberation of France.
In 1947, Cartier-Bresson, with Robert Capa, David Seymour, founded the legendry Magnum Photos. Magnum was a cooperative picture agency owned by its members. The team split photo assignments among the members. Magnum's mission was to "feel the pulse" of the times and aimed to use photography in the service of humanity, and provided arresting, widely viewed images. Cartier-Bresson achieved international recognition for his coverage of Gandhi's funeral in 1948 and the last stage of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Behind the Gare St. Lazare, Paris, 1932 © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
The image above is my favourite and perfectly represents The Decisive Moment of anticipation, the fraction of a second before something dramatic is about to happen. Freezing time between action and reaction creates a nervous anxiety, excitement trapped forever. And so cemented the insatiable desire of the generations of street photographers, wandering to capture the uniquely classic gritty art of light, shape and humanity.
“I believe that through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with discovery of the world around us, which can mould us. A balance must be established between these two worlds, the one inside us and the one outside us. Both these worlds come to form a single one that we must communicate.” Henri Cartier-Bresson
The Var department. Hyères, France. 1932.
HCB withdrew as a principal of Magnum in 1966 to concentrate on portraiture and landscapes. He did not like to be photographed. In 1968, he turned away from photography to his passion for drawing and painting. He admitted that perhaps he had said all he could through photography. When he accepted an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1975, he held a paper in front of his face to avoid being photographed, he was embarrassed by the notion of being famous.
I’ve always been a let’s see what happens and wait for the right moment photographer. Maybe I got that from Henri’s conception, though I also don’t like to take too many photos to edit and sort out after. It’s quite fun and challenging to wait for the right moment to get it right and you could miss it, but there lies the excitement.
I also feel the pressure in taking people’s portraits, competing with their idea of what they look like to reality. Then using my skills to make the most of light and positioning them, having a rapport to relax them. Then they probably prefer to take a selfie using the well rehearsed angle and filter. Is it impossible to represent someone with a single photograph, when they know they are being taken, are they putting on a show?
There is something nostalgically charming about taking a small manual camera into the streets looking and hoping for something incredible. Let’s face it, the chances of getting something memorable is unlikely. But that makes it more valuable when it does happen. Henri Cartier Bresson also knew this “Seldom do I make a great photo”. It’s good to know even one of the greatest suffers the same as us enduring photographers.
Have you tried to make a collection of spontaneity photographs? It sounds like a fun project to capture a fleeting moment or the tension before something is about to happen.
George the 6th Coronation 1937
When ever we delve into art theory it can seem to bog down something that might have been so natural in conception. Some say the decisive moment is now a cliche as it’s always part of anyone’s photography attempts. Certainly technology makes this easier with multiple frames per second and then you can pick the best one to suit. With the cameras doing everything for us what is the photographer’s actually role? Hence film cameras on on the popular rise again, as discussed in a previous blog post.
I like the idea that every scene has a special moment of significance, how could that idea fade over time. Even in Cartier Bresson’s era he mentions photographers getting obsessed with technique such as sharpness or dof, which distracts from the magic of new ideas. He was also well aware that there might not be any new ideas, a postmodern idea that “There’s no new ideas in the world there’s only new arrangement of things, Everything is new, every minute is new. That needs re-examining, Life changes every minute.”
The greatest inspirational thoughts from Henri Cartier Bresson is one that transcends photography and we should all take forward with us on our own journeys, “You just have to live and life will give you pictures.”
Muslim women praying in Kasmir 1948
Nostalgia for light
As technology gets better, it makes it so easy to shoot it eventually becomes effortless. Does this free your mind for creative ideas, or does it lose the challenge of photography to lack respect for getting a good photo.
When I starting out, low light was so difficult it could barely be achieved for events like music. With generations of DSLR’s, iso performance became so good, it breathed new life into my photography. No longer was tech a limitation. Fast forward to 2022, we complain about the accuracy of eye autofocus. Is tech still limiting our creativity and photography achievements?
In event photography with no time, space and low light, tech makes life easier and I can get good results now (low light is still tricky) When your income depends on getting results, being more arty goes out the window for simply capturing the scene. The clients don’t care about extreme DOF or bokeh as long as there is some pop to the photos and the moment is captured. Content is king. We are the ones caring about the intricacies of photography. Trying to be artists for ourselves and other photographers. Which is a valid approach but in what way does our fulfilment land. Whenever you turn a hobby or art into a business, it going to take something artistically fulfilling as well.
With lens sharpness so good we have to pixel peep at 200% to find differences, we forgot to really think why we need it. Older film lenses and even DSLR ones where sometimes so soft wide open it was a limitation but that’s long gone. Maybe we still have that old notion in us to get sharper. But if sharpness and low light aren’t issues anymore. Does this make us question the art of photography which we really never had a chance to before. Older lenses are becoming popular again as they often have character and warmth despite their flaws. This is a reaction against the cool clinical ultra sharpness they have not achieved with modern glass. But that’s what we always wanted so can’t blame the makers. Are we actually involved in photography anymore, or is it just tech taking and creating things for us.
As with all new tech as it gets better, the nostalgia for old tech becomes popular again. I taken this photo at a wedding after I taken my photos of the bride and groom signing the registrar. The young girl was amazing as she shadowed me the whole day with her polaroid. Instant results, sure often over or under exposed but the photos got a lot of awws. The younger man in the photo looks like he’s using a 35mm film camera. then Camera phones for the other two. Interesting how they aren’t using digital cameras but prefer analog. Just like vinyl in music is having a new birth. So film photography is on the rise with young people, even though it's still quite expensive. Hopefully it’ll get cheaper with popularity. Film shooting is tricky, limiting directly opposed to new cameras with almost unlimited retakes and corrections. Film is what it is. No retakes or corrections and their lies the new old pleasure. I admit my editing preset is based on a retro look as was the very creation of instagram which turned digital pics into something like film types. I sometimes, rarely print out my work, its great and tangible. Then try to sell it, which is tough in an oversaturated image world. So the photobook goes on the shelf forgotten.
Does this mean I should stop chasing and spending big money on new tech and go retro? Taking a wedding with a film camera would surely give me a heart attack, too many mistakes could happen! But what a sales pitch it would be - retro photographer. I keep spending more and trying new lenses to feel fulfilled. But it only lasts so long until I get something else. Tech is fun and reliable, but retro is cooler.
Art is doubt. All artists are riddled with it even the most egotistical ones. This also makes us push for more in originality and personal style. I used to think better technology would free me to think more creatively but now i’m not so sure. I’m always interested to see film photography albums where as digital has to be really impressive to get our attention. Maybe the art is the process too.
Sometimes it's nice to grab a flawed little camera or big old nearly broken one and see what you can do. For the fun and challenge of it, to get back to basics and fundamentals of photography as an art. Or instead of using three cameras and multiple lenses, pick one and push it, see what you can do. Let your emotion, feelings and experience of life project into the vision of the camera and make that photo personal. Maybe a retro looking camera with modern tech is the future to appease both sides. This does exist in forms such as the Nikon ZFC. But not fully there yet with full frame.
Challenge yourself to go into any room or area. Stay there until you can get a photo you are happy with. The idea is to make art from anything to really stretch that muscle we seldom use. Photography nostalgia for me is the idea of always having your camera with you, always being the artist, chasing the light and magic where it collides with dark.
