Seeing Henri in a New Way

As I mentioned yesterday, it's Henri Cartier-Bresson's birthday today, which Jan Kwarnmark thinks should become an international Street Shooting Day. Peter Turnley has some nice thoughts about Henri on his Facebook page (click on the "A La Sauvette" link). I was talking to Peter this morning and he had some interesting thoughts about it—he mentioned that when we think of Henri we tend to think of the "decisive moment" meme, and André Lhote's notions of geometry, and surrealism, and all the other ideas that come up along with the name, and we find it hard to remind ourselves of Henri's humanity and his faith when he went out every morning that the pictures were out there waiting to be found. It's like really listening to overly familiar old music. Sometimes it takes some extra effort to break through the crust of familiarity and see the pictures again as moments of life being lived.

Can't resist another plug for my favorite Cartier-Bresson book, the one that to me makes the central case for him and his work. The book I'd have if I could only have one of his. Tonight I'll get it out and go through it again, slowly.

Tomorrow I'll ask for people to send in links to street pictures they took today. I'm really hoping to be able to get out myself, but it's up in the air at this point. Later this week we'll do something more about new street photography, leaving the old chestnuts behind.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by John Garrity: "Yes, Mike, you're right—that is the one single H. C.-B. book to go for. The pictures are essentially those of his master portfolio, which was placed with various museums around the late 1980s. One picture per page, with none chopped up by the gutter. Thames & Hudson also have a Martine Franck book [U.K. link], but sadly a fair few are hurt by running them across two pages."

Comments

[Manuel]

Another missed opportunity for me. My camera was showing a massive amount of hot pixels in long exposures, so that I was advised to deliver it for servicing. Which I did, the camera being still under warranty. This means twenty full days of my life - if not more - without photographing. I already missed the 3-day celebration of World Photography Day that was held in my hometown last weekend - and now this! It's tantalizing.
Still I congratulate you for the idea of promoting this challenge, and I really hope to see many great street photographs from TOP readers. It'll be a very fine tribute to HCB.

[Pak-Ming Wan]

I totally forgot about his birthday (bad), but I was working out of town so I ended up having a run with my camera (good)! So, I'm kinda glad I inadvertently participated ;)

Pak

[Mirona Iliescu]

Well, I loved your call to arms yesterday, and though I'm just an amateur photographer armed with a Canon S95, and though I run a small business and don't have time to go to the loo, I made the time to shoot a little, and present my shots in a short blog post: http://www.gorgeoux.com/2012/08/street-photography-day-and-my-take-on-it.html For what it's worth, I hope you like my contribution :)

[Carl Siracusa]

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer is the book I've been longing to buy -- in the hope that it will be better than the much-touted Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World. This came out the same time as the huge retrospective at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in 1993. I went to that, and had a chance to compare the prints on the wall with the ones in the book, which was lying around. Invariably, the book photos were very tonally different -- lighter and lower in contrast. All well and good if you've never seen an HCB print, but that's not how he wanted them presented. (A similar problem with the recently re-published Robert Frank's The Americans, which is inferior, IMHO, to the original.) Well, I ended up shelling out for the book, but I always feel , when reading it, that I'm not getting the real HCB.

[Paul Logins]

google: Henri Cartier-Bresson
and press "pictures"
Simply amazing and inspiring.

[John Krill]

You're right about the book selection but I just can't afford it. But last year I purchased his book 'à Propos de Paris' and along with Sam Abell's 'The Life of a Photograph,' they are my go to books for inspiration.

[jamin]

wait, what? I thought your favourite book was A Propos de Paris!

That's the one I like best. :d

[David H.]

Now that's a tough assignment--at least for me. I often go out on weekends several hours at a time even getting one photo that is good enough to display publicly, is never a sure thing. It would have been even tougher on workday yesterday (Aug 22 in Japan). All I could see in the short time I had outside the office, was the standard "person walking down the street doing nothing interesting shot." I already have plenty of those, so I decided not to further embarrass myself.

[Jeff]

Your favorite book of his also demonstrates his skill at landscape photos, of which there are about a dozen or so among those presented (rural scenes, without people, so clearly not "street"). He was the master of timing and geometry, regardless of genre or subject matter, also including portraiture.

And now that you mention reader photos, what ever happened to the print contest that was initiated about 9 months or so ago? :)

[Joseph Bayot]

How come you prefer that book over Modern Century? The reproductions, the depth, the design?

[Mike Johnston]

jamin,
I don't think I dislike any of his books that I have....

Mike