rondal Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Some photographers like to engage in "print exchanges". Apparently, Willy Ronis and Henri Cartier-Bresson did the same, at least once. <a href="http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2004-08-06/2004-08-06-398441">Here</a> is an article that appeared in the French newspaper <i>l'Humanit�</i> upon HCB's death in 2004. Ronis (who, for the benefit of those who don't know, is a long-time celebrated photojournalist and member of Magnum, which HCB founded) was interviewed at the time. A quotation from this interview appears at the bottom of the article. Ronis mentions the print exchange and recounts his words to HCB, which I translated here:<p>"I'd like to have a print of your photograph of the children at Simiane-la-Rotonde because there is extraordinary tenderness in it. I'm an incurable sentimental, and this photograph simply makes my heart beat."<p>The HCB photo that Ronis mentions is a relatively obscure one, but it perfectly mirrors Ronis's predilection. The photograph may have Cartier-Bresson's typical geometry, but I think it has all of Ronis's sentimentality, as well. It makes me see HCB and Ronis as a sort of Kubrick-and-Spielberg team, yet in much better complementation.<p>What is your favorite HCB photo?<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico_digoliardi Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 I cannot point to my favorite HBC because I don't know the titles of the images. I truly like your online work and can see a style. A couple of them are particularly outstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert x Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I must say I read the post with interest, thinking the question was going to be along the lines of how you go about achieving tenderness in a picture. I admit to being very disappointed to find this is just another "which is your favorite HCB picture". I don't subscribe to the huge HCB fanclub, preferring Capa. But this picture I do like, probably because it reminds me very much of a Seurat painting:- http://paralemdozero.blogs.sapo.pt/arquivo/Henri%20Cartier-Bresson.jpg The Seurat:- http://www.rpmotoring.com/stations/art/Seurat.jpeg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h._p. Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I do like some of Bresson's pictures. The earlier stuff appeals to me much more than the later. I'm not much of one for favourites so I'll just leave it at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rondal Posted April 20, 2006 Author Share Posted April 20, 2006 Robert X--<p>why be disappointed? Go ahead and answer your own question; I'd be interested to hear your response. The reason I didn't pose the question is because, for me, it has no answer. Tenderness isn't something that I personally, as a photographer, would set out to capture, because my photographs more or less capture themselves. I'm usually surprised when I see my contact sheets, thinking, "Now, how the heck did I do <i>that</i>?"<p>Incidentally, I saw, and loved, the Seurat you mentioned, at London's National Gallery last summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert x Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Ronnie - oh well not that diappointed really, but when it ended with a simple "what's your favorite" it didn't seem like a topic that would lead to much discussion. Simply "I like this one". etc. I thought about your request. I think there's a difference between capturing tenderness (like in the picture you linked where the tenderness seems to be between the subjects and the easy and innocent physical intimacy that exists so comfortably between them) and portraying a subject with tenderness. The former I think you just have to be there when the moment is taking place and to capture it. The latter is perhaps harder. I looked in my portfolio on p.net and found three that I think qualify a little - though I had never really thought about it like that before. The first is the first picture on my page, which is of my mother. Perhaps I am putting a tenderness there that doesn't actually exist out of context, but that is a picture of my mother on a cliff near her home, shortly after my father died. For me the tenderness comes by placing her so small in the middle of the frame and it feels very sad and lonely to me. But as I say, without the context perhaps that doesn't come across as anything more than a poor picture of a too small figure on a clifftop ? The other two are less so perhaps - one is the old man on the wall with the yellow hat, the other is the pony - again on a cliff top. All three cases use a smallish subject through a wideangle lens - perhaps I am just putting a tenderness there that doesn't exist, but for me, when asked to respond to you, that is where I found it in my small selection here... Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert x Posted April 22, 2006 Share Posted April 22, 2006 sorry to kill the thread there..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Keller Posted April 22, 2006 Share Posted April 22, 2006 <P>Not all threads have to solve the world's problems ... or teach us something deep and meaningful ... some threads just entertain.<BR><BR>*sips Starbucks mocha (thanks H.P. ... for the nice <A href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00FsuY">mugshot</A>)<BR><BR>Of the handful of pictures that I've seen from HCB, I like when he did portraits with super-strong subjects, like this one of <A href="http://www.retards.org/photography/pre_2000/other_photos/Bressen_Camus.jpg">Albert Camus</A> ... or this one of <A href="http://www.apertura.cl/archivo/apertura/N%BA5%20-%20a%F1o%201/fotos%20cartier%20bresson/sartre%20por%20cartier%20bresson.jpg">Jean-Paul Sartre.</A> What a character Sartre was. There are also a couple of <A href="http://www.journalism.indiana.edu/syllabi/ccookman/j460spring02/ccpix/hcbstravinksy.jpg">Stravinsky</A> that I like ... and I couldn't find links to his photos of Bernstein, Louis Pons, Gandhi, and Maharishi Sri Ramana. Oh, well.</P> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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