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Author Topic: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment  (Read 259702 times)

RSL

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #160 on: February 14, 2013, 02:18:25 pm »

Here's what Henri said photography meant to him:

"To take photographs is to hold one's breath when all faculties converge in the face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical joy.

"To take photographs means to recognize -- simultaneously and within a fraction of a second -- both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye, and one's heart on the same axis.

"As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's originality. It is a way of life." (From The Mind's Eye. I think this originally was in Images a' la Sauvette)

He didn't specifically say, "I am not an artist," but he sure didn't say he was. Without question he was one of the great artists of the twentieth century, but he didn't think of himself that way. He always downplayed photography as art. He wanted to be a painter.
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Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #161 on: February 14, 2013, 08:48:29 pm »

He didn't specifically say, "I am not an artist," but he sure didn't say he was.

Door #3

  • ‘I do not know if photography is an art or not. I know that it is a way of comprehending. Photography is a form of intelligence.’

    attributed December 1968 "L'Univers noir et blanc d'Henri Cartier-Bresson", Yves Bourde, Photo 15, pp24-35


  • "Is photography art? …Cartier Bresson said, ‘I don’t know if photography is an art or not an art’."

    attributed  "Pictures on a Page: Photo-Journalism, Graphics and Picture Editing" Harold Evans, 1978


He always downplayed photography as art. He wanted to be a painter.

  • "While visiting an exhibition dedicated to his drawings... Cartier-Bresson confessed: ‘People think that I disdain photography. But I have changed tools, that's all. The secret is concentration. I cannot concentrate at the same time on two entities that are so close and so utterly different.’ "

    attributed "Rencontre avec Henri Cartier-Bresson", radio programme, 1989.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2013, 02:41:38 am by Isaac »
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Kirk Gittings

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #162 on: February 14, 2013, 10:44:24 pm »

Wow haven't visited this thread in awhile. It really went downhill after awhile..............
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Thanks,
Kirk Gittings

Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #163 on: February 15, 2013, 02:33:51 am »

... I don't believe there's a single instance where HC-B himself even referred to his photography as art - of any kind.

We've all been young:

  • "Later I met photographers who had some of Atget's prints. These I considered remarkable and, accordingly, I bought myself a tripod, a black cloth and a polished walnut wood camera three by four inches. The camera was fitted with -- instead of a shutter -- a lens cap, which one took off  and the put on to make the exposure. This last detail, of course, confined my challenge to the static world. Other photographic subjects seemed to me to be too complicated, or else to be 'amateur stuff'. And by this time I fancied that by disregarding them, I was dedicating myself to Art with a capital 'A'."

    attributed "The Decisive Moment" 1952.
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Rob C

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #164 on: February 15, 2013, 05:07:18 am »

We've all been young:

  • "Later I met photographers who had some of Atget's prints. These I considered remarkable and, accordingly, I bought myself a tripod, a black cloth and a polished walnut wood camera three by four inches. The camera was fitted with -- instead of a shutter -- a lens cap, which one took off  and the put on to make the exposure. This last detail, of course, confined my challenge to the static world. Other photographic subjects seemed to me to be too complicated, or else to be 'amateur stuff'. And by this time I fancied that by disregarding them, I was dedicating myself to Art with a capital 'A'."attributed "The Decisive Moment" 1952.



That's hardly claiming oneself artist; it's one thing to say that you might think of the genre as artistic in nature (especially, as you indicate, when young) but putting oneself into the rôle of artist is another, which I don't read that quotation as declaring. If anything, his use of the past tense indicates he has dismissed any sense of such an idea (regarding his time in photography).

Many creative endeavours are artistic by nature, and many people who indulge in them are artists and others not. Many would like to consider themselves artists, for whatever reason, but wishing and being are not one...

Rob C

Rob C

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #165 on: February 15, 2013, 05:09:06 am »

So what would persuade you that your interpretation should be revised?


At the moment, not a lot I've read convinces me that I'm misinterpreting what I've read.

Rob C

Rob C

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #166 on: February 15, 2013, 05:10:48 am »

Wow haven't visited this thread in awhile. It really went downhill after awhile..............


Come back again in a week or so and you'll also consider the 'good old days' a reality!

;-)

Rob C

RSL

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #167 on: February 15, 2013, 05:34:57 am »

We've all been young:

  • "Later I met photographers who had some of Atget's prints. These I considered remarkable and, accordingly, I bought myself a tripod, a black cloth and a polished walnut wood camera three by four inches. The camera was fitted with -- instead of a shutter -- a lens cap, which one took off  and the put on to make the exposure. This last detail, of course, confined my challenge to the static world. Other photographic subjects seemed to me to be too complicated, or else to be 'amateur stuff'. And by this time I fancied that by disregarding them, I was dedicating myself to Art with a capital 'A'."

    attributed "The Decisive Moment" 1952.

Hi Isaac, Yes, he wrote that. And if you read it in context you'll understand he was laughing at himself. It quite clearly bears out what Rob and I have been saying.
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Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #168 on: February 15, 2013, 11:30:01 am »

So what would persuade you that your interpretation should be revised?

At the moment, not a lot I've read convinces me that I'm misinterpreting what I've read.

What would?


That's hardly claiming oneself artist...

That's M. Cartier-Bresson laughing at the younger Cartier-Bresson, for thinking that disregarding other photographic subjects was dedicating oneself to Art with a capital 'A'.

« Last Edit: February 15, 2013, 12:10:49 pm by Isaac »
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Rob C

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #169 on: February 15, 2013, 12:13:40 pm »

"At the moment, not a lot I've read convinces me that I'm misinterpreting what I've read."

1.  What would?

"That's hardly claiming oneself artist..."

2.  That's laughing at oneself, for believing in the past that one had dedicated oneself to to Art with a capital 'A'.




1.  Presumably, if someone unearthed a statement in the man's fair hand where he consciously declares himself photograpic artist. As I have repeatedly written, I have not seen anything that fulfils that notion.

2.  Exactly, we agree. It's not a claim to being a photographic artist.

Rob C

Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #170 on: February 15, 2013, 12:33:45 pm »

Presumably, if someone unearthed a statement in the man's fair hand where he consciously declares himself photograpic artist.

I presume you would say it was forged :-)

We already have his statement that rejects the question -- ‘I do not know if photography is an art or not.’


It's not a claim to being a photographic artist.

I'm sure you can make-up some convenient definition of "a photographic artist" to support that comment ;-)

Meanwhile the rest of us can meditate on the hair that supposedly splits "dedicating myself to Art with a capital 'A'" from "claiming oneself artist".
« Last Edit: February 15, 2013, 02:45:25 pm by Isaac »
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Rob C

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #171 on: February 15, 2013, 03:08:31 pm »

I presume you would say it was forged :-)

We already have his statement that rejects the question -- ‘I do not know if photography is an art or not.’


I'm sure you can make-up some convenient definition of "a photographic artist" to support that comment ;-)

Meanwhile the rest of us can meditate on the hair that supposedly splits "dedicating myself to Art with a capital 'A'" from "claiming oneself artist".


Better than on the head of a pin!

Regarding the other points: thanks for the vote of confidence in my varied abilities - it means a lot to me!

;-)

Rob C

LKaven

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #172 on: February 15, 2013, 03:34:35 pm »

I'd say "art with a capital 'A'" had a special kind of meaning in this historical context.  I think it refers more to a kind of classicism.  It took an awfully long time before modernism got any hold on photography in the mainstream, in spite of the fact that people like Man Ray had been working that way for some time.  It's a long way from Man Ray to Robert Frank, and even then, "The Americans" only sold 500 copies in its first printing.   H-CB was seen more as a journalist with a good aesthetic, and a rather classical aesthetic at that.

Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #173 on: February 15, 2013, 05:01:21 pm »

There was some historical precedent for the use of 'decisive moment' in the sense of a 'turning point' in an event, and so the phrase itself is laden with that history.

You refer to Cardinal de Retz "Il n'y a rien en ce monde qui n'ait un moment décisif." ?

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LKaven

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #174 on: February 15, 2013, 06:03:46 pm »

You refer to Cardinal de Retz "Il n'y a rien en ce monde qui n'ait un moment décisif." ?

Exactly, Isaac.

Rob C

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #175 on: February 16, 2013, 02:31:43 pm »

Which has moved us where?

Rob  C

Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #176 on: February 20, 2013, 09:11:52 pm »

I'd say "art with a capital 'A'" had a special kind of meaning in this historical context.  ...

iirc He was talking about how he felt in the late 1920s.
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Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #177 on: February 20, 2013, 09:37:51 pm »

Which has moved us where?

To remember that M. Cartier-Bresson often alluded to French literature.

(Perhaps to remember that the publishers were responsible for both book titles: "Images à la Sauvette" and "The Decisive Moment").

To remember that there are French language radio interviews with M. Cartier-Bresson, and many articles and letters in Le Monde, and interviews in French language photo magazines.

Quote
"Great artists, like Edward Weston, Paul Strand or Adams, those with talent, concentrate first and foremost on the natural, the geological, the landscape and monuments. As for myself, I focus almost entirely on people. I go for immediacy. Landscapes represent eternity."

"Un Reporter", Photo France 7, May 1951, p18

I wonder what question he was answering.

Also a somewhat grander statement -- "My photographs are variations on the same theme: Man and his destiny. No one is infinitely versatile; each one of us carries within himself a particular vision of the universe. It is this view which makes for the unity in our work and ultimately its style." Harper's Magazine, November 1961.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2013, 11:39:48 am by Isaac »
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LKaven

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #178 on: February 20, 2013, 11:32:09 pm »

I think of those artists such as Stieglitz and Steichen as being in the "Art with a capital 'A'" group.  They are classical, fine arts-oriented, and in a sense saw the task of "legitimizing" photography as an art form as measured against the extent to which they could emulate some of the classical forms of painting and drawing.

Much as H C-B had his own somewhat classical ideas about composition and form, his images were still the result of a different kind of process with an urgency and immediacy that was different from his predecessors.  The way he articulates his process I think addresses just that. 

Isaac

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Re: Yeah Cartier-Bresson couldn't crop for........a member's comment
« Reply #179 on: February 21, 2013, 12:42:26 pm »

Much as H C-B had his own somewhat classical ideas about composition and form, his images were still the result of a different kind of process with an urgency and immediacy that was different from his predecessors.

You seem to be thinking of what came later -- the later photojournalism and the photos from '29-'33 Spain Italy Mexico France which were for sale at Julien Levy's New York gallery in 1933.

(Some of those prints are in the Art Institute of Chicago collection labelled "Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean and Julien Levy".)

M. Cartier-Bresson describes what came before -- when he confined his challenge to the static world, when he was dedicating himself to Art with a capital 'A'.
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