Cartier-Bresson will never die.

While Ansel Adams mapped the magnificence and freedom which can be

found in nature and Robert Kappa captured the heights and lows of

human emotion , the horrors of battle and reminding us all of the

value of freedom and showing us why it should be preserved, Cartier-

Bresson showed us what to do with that freedom and if he did not

invent lifestyle photography ,he raised the bar to the zenith

itself,his poetic images of everyday life taught us to pause and

smell the roses , that there can be music in the way we walk , to

stand taller,that we can dance in the rain.

 

Throughout his long and prolific career he covered many subjects

but his work is clearly distinguished from all other when he showed

us a new way to look at the potential harmony , beauty,and synergy

that can exist between man and his environment and on his most

memorable award winning images have been selected to be used as

postcards, get well cards etc ,and can be found in any postcard

shops around the world , he has left us a message of hope,and that

there can be light at the end of the tunnel , he showed us the world

as Saint Exupery would have wanted it, now Henri has gone to find

his own rose but has left us a great legacy which we call

photography and if it can be considered as art it is greatly because

of his contribution.

Mr. Littman, you have an amazing ability to write run-on sentences. I noticed it a couple days ago in the really long posts you made on IP/patent rights as well.

 

Perhaps you would do well to do some self-editing of your posts before you finally post them. It would certainly help you make your point better.

Sounds like more 'dead photographer worship' to me. Still, I always thought Harry Callahan was technically better than HCB, and also wasn't a walking advertisement for a specific brand of camera.

Callahan's photos of his wife were his greatest achievements in photography. In a later incarnation, he was a walking advertisement for the Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum, you know.

 

HCB's accomplishments are well known and respected.

actually, he did die and the only thing that lasts is our stuff. someone gets it and has to take care of it. his work will be around for quite awhile. is everyone suddenly an ancient egyptian in their worship of the dead?

Is that Yanni? "<i>...pause and smell the roses , that there can be music in the way we walk , to stand taller,that we can dance in the rain..</i>" Do I hear Yanni? "<i>...look at the potential harmony , beauty,and synergy that can exist between man and his environment ...</i>" No, I think it's John Tesch. Yeah, John Tesch "<i>...a message of hope,and that there can be light at the end of the tunnel...</i>" definately John Tesch...<p>a master has passed this way, think of him the next time you look through your camera (and that should do)... t

Scott:

 

While HCB may somehow be said as the exemplifer of Leica photography (which is a very fuzzy and useless label) this is more an accident rather than an advertising issue. DDD promoted Nikon in a similar fashion. This is quite unlike Steve MacCurry o rDAH's endorsement of Nikon!

His pictures will now be locked up and we will only be able to see them if we genuflect and kiss the asses of the pimply-faced students who manage the image libraries at educational institutions. Ultimately, the images we can see will be "chosen" by the knowing and the elite, just like Ansel, and the whole world will start to think that he only took 20 pictures, because that is all we will see over and over again......That is the real sad part..

Cartier-Bresson just died. His work will influence others and last,you meant. Word tributes and encomiums can't come near to the images... And Capa, spelled Capa,as we know.I miss Galen Rowell. I miss others. Glad they passed my way during my growing up in the last century. And during the heyday of Life magazine. The people's photo gallery.

"His pictures will now be locked up and we will only be able to

see them if we genuflect and kiss the asses of the pimply-faced

students who manage the image libraries........we.......will start to

think that he only 20 pictures........real sad........"

 

John, I've no idea where your bleak assessment of the future of

his pictures comes from. His widow is a photographer and his

archive is with Magnum, why would she or they limit the future

exposure of his images (and turn down the income they

generate)? If anything you might actually now see more of his

images. However, if you really want to kiss the pimply asses of

students, I'm sure nobody will stand in your way..........

As a literal statement it is plainly untrue. <p>

 

But somewhere, in a book by Terry Pratchet I think, it says something like <i>There is a place where they beleive that person is not truly dead until the things they started in their life are all over, the wine they made has been drunk, the clock they wound has run down</i>it's a sentiment that helps me sometimes, and in this sense HCB won't die. His photos will continue to appear in books, and the influence of his ideas will shape new generations of photographers. <br>Just as there is a class of photography which Ansel Adams made his own, so it is with HCB, and when people think and talk about great photography these are a couple of the practitioners whose names will always come up. <P>

If I wanted to remember him by a single picture it would be this one <br>

<img src="http://www.artstudiomagazine.com/imagenes/cartier_bresson_01.jpg">

Ultimately, these photo collections seem to have a predetermined destiny to end up in institutional photo collections. If Magnum holds on to them (knock wood)it might not happen. My experience is that once image collections enter institutions, they become difficult to see, and their value is more important to the institutions as an asset. I hope that Bresson's images WILL remain viewable and that perhaps in the future, institutions can make the real transition to the digital era by showing the images on the internet. Our real worries here should be with NEW photographers and that Bresson might be an example or motivation for them.

Again.

Why was Harry Callahan a walking advertisement for Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum?

 

I find the number of times guns are mentioned on photo.net to be creepy. BTW, I thought that before seeing 'Bowling for Columbine' and learning of Americans odd proclivity for guns and using them on each other.

 

Back on topic, Henri is dead, hadn't photographed for ages, reputedly disavowed some of the legend. But his place in history is rightfully secure.

'Bowling for Columbine' was a heap of Michael Moore sensational crap. The 44 Magnum toting Harry Callahan was an alter ego of Clint Eastwood in the "Dirty Harry" sagas. Don't be too freaked out by the guns, its some of the people holding them that are a bit of a worry, and yea Henri has moved on.

How can a more technically skilled photographer take a more interseting picture than a less technically skilled photographer?

'How can a more technically skilled photographer take a more interseting picture than a less technically skilled photographer?'

 

I submit that technical skill takes a back seat to original vision. The examples of technically well executed but boring photos are legion.

As for run on sentences, why the need to shoot people down over something so irrelevant? How about a little civility.

Define technical skill. Creating an image that conveys and may add a "look" to the original vision is a technique, however one arrives at it. Even the supposed disregard for the technical aspects, in serving the vision, is a technique. Photography is not rocket science, and in terms of manual "skill" pales in comparison to, say, painting.. or playing a musical instrument, but that's not the point anyway. HCB certainly knew what he was doing, and where his priorities were. And one must believe he was aware of the visual outcomes. Those are aesthetic choices and where the "art" comes in. The "science" is banal.

Arond - civility is defined by Merriam-Webster as "training in the humanities". Humanities is defined as the branches of learning of philosophy, arts, or languages.

 

I believe that giving constructive criticism about not using run on sentences is being civil.

Kirk-

Your reading of the dictionary is rather selective. (I can't believe I'm doing this...) In non-archaic, modern usage 'civility' relates to courtesy & politeness. While you may have viewed your remarks as constructive criticism, it seemed poorly timed as the first response after William's thoughtful euglogy. That's all.

Arond - selective, certainly. But you must have missed the pages and pages of run on sentences Mr. Littman wrote recently in another thread that has been deleted.

 

I realize that he is passionate about what he is writing. I'm just suggesting that his message would very most certainly have benefitted from a little proofreading.

 

Timing? Would it have been better if I had waited until the HCB mourning period was over?

 

If the moderator would like to remove your and my comments, I'm fine with that.

<i><blockquote> he showed us a new way to look at the potential harmony ,

beauty,and synergy that can exist between man and his environment

</blockquote> </i><p>

 

To those unfamiliar with those who came before him and his contemporaries, perhaps.

<i>How can a more technically skilled photographer take a more interseting picture than a less technically skilled photographer?

</i>

<br>

<br>

you do know hes never printed one of his own pix...right? hes a shooter, like the rest of us street freaks...

At least for the first several years (until WW2?) he did his own printing.