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Willy Ronis and HCB


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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>00G6tW-29514984.jpg.fa6b6d5f18e137590b77821e4e332592.jpg</div>

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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

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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.
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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

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<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>
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