Henri Cartier-Bresson

I have become increasingly interested in Cartier-Bresson's work who's photography came to define the 20th century. Like William Klein, Cartier-Bresson started out as an artist and in his early years as a photographer he was heavily influenced by the 'surrealists'. His friend and fellow photographer Cappa advised him not to focus on the surrealist style and to project himself as a photo journalist, but remaines a surrealist at heart.

In this fascinating little video, Cartier-Bresson talks about his pre-occupation with geometry, lines and shape and that shape is essential, describing it as his 'greatest joy, a sensuous and intellectual pleasure', his love of geometry is very evident in his images, I find it so very impressive that he is able to capture the moment with all its lines and shapes and still get a great picture. On talking about portraits Cartier-Bresson touches on how difficult portraiture can be and the difference between them and a street scene, he talks about capturing that moment where you 'put the camera between the skin of the person and their shirt' which is exactly what he does so well.

Inspirational Photo's & Photographers

W Eugene Smith - 'Walk into Paradise Gardens'
On the surface this image looks like a 'sweet' image of two children holding hands taking a walk on what looks like a sunny day, until you understand the background for Eugene Smith taking the picture.  This was the first photograph that Smith took after two years of recuperation for injuries sustained while covering World War II. As he writes (collected in Art and Artist):

The children in the photograph are my children, and the day I made this photographic effort, I was not sure I would be capable of ever photographing again.
…
It was a good day on which to try. A beautiful, warm spring day to cradle a man’s efforts to reclaim himself. The children…approached a clearing roughly arched by the trees, and I became acutely sensitive to the lines forming the scene and to the bright shower of light pouring into the opening and spilling down the path toward us. Pat saw something in the clearing, he grasped Juanita by the hand and they hurried forward. I dropped a little farther behind the engrossed children, then stopped. Painfully I struggled—almost into panic—with the mechanical iniquities of the camera…I composed the setting as I labored…tried to, and did ignore the sudden violence of pain that real effort shot again and again through my hand, up my arm, and into my spine…swallowing, sucking, gagging, trying to pull the ugly tasting serum inside, into my mouth and throat, and away from dripping down on the camera where it would obscure the clarity of the image…preparing, testing, checking the approaching merger of the subject factors…tensing tighter and tighter the delicate pressure on the shutter release, trying to anticipate in time to defeat my reaction lag…and, as the children stepped in space, to complete my foreseen composition, I pressed the camera release to retain the image of that instant—to hold secure on film the vision of this minute fraction of time floating within eternity.
The reaction was immediate. I knew the photograph, though not perfect, and however unimportant to the world, had been held. Shock waves of feeling released through me, breaking damply out of my flesh…I was aware that mentally, spiritually, even physically, I had taken a first good stride away from those past two wasted and stifled years.

On viewing the image after understanding a little more about how it was taken evokes a variety of emotions and an appreciation of the effort taken to take it but more over an appreciation of the effect that it had on W Eugene Smith and as a parent, the swiftness of the passing of time that how special it was to capture a moment of childhood innocence


Chim - 'Air Raid Shelter'
I enjoy several elements of this image, the faces of the children, the expression of sadness and confusion on their faces, adults can be seen in the shadows. The image forms part of a collection in the Corcaran Gallery of Arts called 'reflections from the heart: photographs of 'Chims children'. The name Chim (shim) is a compressed french version of Mr Semours original last name of Szymin. His assignment was to shoot and document the war's effect on children, Chim became known for his poignant treatment of people especially children. There is a book out in spring 2013 called 'Chim:Children of war' must look out for that.

This image is a serious one, it feels 'worried', the children standing very close to together in a united and comforting way. Behind the children, the adults stay close, the distance from the camera makes me feel like they need to keep a distance away, to stay together in safety, they seem to move back further as you look at the image, the light cascading a protective crust surrounding. The other side of the light is darkness, unknown for these young faces, faces of the future with the older faces keeping them safe, beyond the darkness is the unknown, the light is safe.


Carlo Bevilacqua - 'Mafia'
This image entitled 'Mafia' was of instant interest to me, I'm not sure if it was the title of the image that caught my eye or the man in the image. I love the way it is lit, with the light catching the side of the sitter highlighting his cheek. The unshaven chin and the rolled cigarette and clothing give the impression of a less fortunate individual until you look into the eye, only one eye is seen, the other in shadow, the expression without looking at the eye could be mistake as a happy state of mind but the glint in the eye leaves me feeling that the sitter, who looks you straight in the eye back is someone confident and unafraid, a look maybe of 'don't mess with me'. The large hand also suggest that this man had worked hard, a large man with a story to tell. 

These three images are just a few of the many I've been attracted to since starting The Art of Photography, these were the ones I was instantly attracted to.

I noted an article in the May edition of the British Journal of Photography when Bill Henson talks about night photography, he talks about how photography, compared to art, is evidential. Art can carry the viewer off into a world of fantasy, where as the photograph, being evidential, contradicts other mediums. He says he tries to hold onto both the evidential authority and allow for the universalising of the subject.

Interestingly, Henson doesn't caption his images stating 'who am I to tell people how to read them?' I don't know how you perceive things, it's down to our own individual experiences and ultimately our genetic make-up.

What I find so interesting about all these images is the detail that isn't immediately obvious and is revealed as you view the image, which is the same for most images I know but for the 'charoscuro' type of image there can be a level of mystery, that you are being let into a secret if you look hard enough.

So maybe 'darker', 'charoscuro' type images are my thing? I certainly feel attracted by these type of images looking back over my blog. I was delighted with my night time shoot, this was the first time I'd taken photo's this way and am looking forward to exploring this area more in the future

Conceptual Photography - 'Knowone died today'

Broomberg and Chanarin create a set of conceptual photographic images which have been described by some as merely a 'stunt'. I can appreciate why they did what they did in order to highlight the restriction and control forced on embeded photo journalists covering current war zones especially when compared to say images produced from coverage of Vietnam in the 60's.

Conceptual photography is a new area I'd not considered previously. I'm not sure if anyone really knows what it is. It seems to relate to some areas of photography and not others, I think conceptual photography relates to art more than other types of photography such as fashion advertising or photographic images created to sell a car, these are also conceptual photography by their very creation, which makes me question....isn't all photography conceptual? other than of course simply walking around snapping at whatever takes your fancy, which is what I did before starting this course. But does then photography fall into the category of conceptual only when there are drawn plans? maps and ideas? evidence of the concept? If these plans are in the mind, is this conceptual?

'Air raid shelter' Minorca, Spain 1937 Chim (1911-1956)
Sourced from Bridgeman Education. First impressions of this image at that it is a serious image, it feels 'worried' the children standing close together in a comforting way. Behind the children, the adults stay close, the distance from the camera make me feel like they need to keep a distance, to stay together in safety, they seem to move further back into the distance. The light cascades a protective crust surrounding them, the other side of the crust is darkness, unknown for those young faces, faces of the future with older faces keeping them safe.
I didn't realise when finding this image that Chim, in 1947, co-founded Magnum Photo's with Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Wow! what an interesting trio, I'm really looking forward to finding out more about these hugely influential photographers. I recently watched an hour long interview with Henri Cartier-Bresson, what in interesting character, he didn't want to accept praise or accolade. During the interview he said several times, 'I'm not a photographer, I am an anarchist' and 'you just need to know when to 'click''. I feel very excited when reading, searching, discovering anything about Magnum - Chim, Capa, Cartier-Bresson.

'Mafia'
Bevilaqua, Carlo (1900-1988)
This image entitled 'mafia', sourced from Bridgeman Education, was of instant interest to me, I'm not sure if it was the title of the image that caught my eye or the man in the image. I love the way it is lit, with the light catching the side of the sitter lighting his cheek. The unshaven chin, the rolled cigarette and the clothing give an image of a less fortunate individual until you look into the eye! Only one eye is visible, the other in shadow, the expression without looking at the eye could be mistaken as a happy state of mind but the glint in the eye leaves the viewer feeling as though he is looking straight into the eye of the viewer, with a sharp sense of purpose, hard, confident even though clearly an elderly gentleman, the large hands leaves me thinking that this was not a character to me crossed, he seems unaffraid.

Phillip - Lorca di Corcia - 'Head'

Di Corcia's 'Head' series was made by placing flash lighting on construction scafolding above a busy New York street, out of sight of the passers by below. The movements of the pedestrians activated the flash, at which moment Di Corcias photographed the illuminated stranger with a long lens. The resulting images show people who do not knw that they are being photographed and so don't compose themselves for their 'portraits'.

I am quite fascinated by this idea, how exciting to not know who is coming into the frame and to be at a distance so the sitter is unaware. I would be really interesting in re-creating this effect and am thinking about doing something of this nature, when I think of what opportunities a similar approach could be used for I think of the next world cup and wonder if it would be feasible to capture the moment of scoring a goal, when the elation and emotion both good and bad could be moments to captured. There are many moments of surprise that could be captured, coming round a corner, lift doors opening, fireworks being set off??

Chiaroscuro

I am really interested in the technique called Chiaroscuro, it facinates me, I've always thought that dark pictures were unintentional or some sort of mistake, I can see that by reading more about this technique that there is a whole workd or artistic work to discover, I feel so excited to be learning and discovering, loving this journey! This technique evokes a feeling of mystery of the unknown, dangerous maybe. Senses used are different to images used with light and sight, at night time we rely on other senses, hearing, smell, temperature, I feel these types of images drag me in, as if I were there and my eyes adjust to the darkness as I explore the image.

British Journal of Photography

Subscribed to the BJP and received my first copy which focuses on night photography and is extremely interesting. What if so encouraging is to discover so many different forms of expression through photography. I am particularly interested in chiaroscuro photography where the light through the shadows highlight the subject/scene. I love the work of Bill Henson and the delicate way his portraits using chiaroscuro highlight the subjects skin making it look touchable in his 'light and shade' photo's in the May BJP. Also the work of Laura Stevens shows her work of couples in their homes and intimate moments looking like they are lit by moonlight giving the effect of almost an oil painting, an old masters, stunning. Reading my first addition of BJP I can see that I will develop an appreciation for the many forms of photography which is obviously educational but more, so inspiring and exciting. Also my observations have led me to make a list of photographers I want to find out more about:
Bill Henson
Steichen
Weston
Cartier-Bresson
Ernst Haas

Cornell Capa - Bolshoi Ballet School

In this picture of beauty, grace, light & elegance, Capa has captured the essecence of ballet. The image shows ballerinas working at the bar with a large mirror further into the picture and at the end of the row. The diagonal gives the image a feeling of action and movement. The mirror shows a juxtaposition of the reality of each ballerina's hard work with the mirrored illusion of effortlessness. Cornell Capa b. Budapest (HUN) 1918. Bolshoi Ballet School, Moscow 1958 Gelatin silver print.

The Freeman View

Just read an interesting article by Michael Freeman entitled 'On Perfection' where he touches on the debate between technical and creative, the 'correctness' of the photograph, and striving for perfection rather than a creative ideal and that photographers should have the confidence and experience to follow the gut and heart rather than the rational part of the mind and to discover what works and what dosen't. There is a Zen Buddhism concept called Wabi-Sabi - an appreciation of the imperfect, impoverished and ascetic. This approach resonates greatly with me for very many reasons, this article has informed me that things should be put in proportion with a need for technical accuracy in both shooting and processing but also with a touch of Wabi-Sabi

John Cooper 'Single tree in a field'

Browsing through Bridgeman Education website and this photograph caught my eye. I love the simplicity of it and the way the light has caught the undulations of the field.