john sypal Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 <p>I am sure most of you have seen this already, and doing a photo.net search I saw that it was talked about <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0095Ih&tag=">before</a>, but if you have not seen the Charlie Rose interivew with HCB (and a few seconds with a very enthusiastic Richard Avedon), you can see it on Google Video <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay? docid=-4074157481455007235&q=photographer+type%3Asv_charlierose">here</a>. I know this made the blog rounds recently but just in case you missed it I suggest checking it out.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john sypal Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 Be warned though- it is the full hour long interview. I'm glad I was not at work when I found out about it, since I'd have hated to have to wait to see it all at once. Anyone care to share their thoughts about it? I liked the part about him handing his camera to his friend with the better view to take a picture... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliverkurzemann Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 i had to stop watching the video after 5 mins. the journalist interviewing cartier bresson with his gestures and the way he asked questions drove me nuts.cartier bresson is not a child.... also cartier bresson�s answers were weird. i had the impression that he wasn�t interested in this interview at all. i love looking at his photos and the biography about him is a great read, this interview is.... (but yes, i have only watched it for 5 mins) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Damn! I spent the money to by a tape of the interview, and this is much better. Especially the Avedon comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john sypal Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 I was not too impressed with the questions he was given nor how they were asked- the whole Forceful Statement (something like, "YOU- YOU! Are the GREATEST PHOtoGrapher in the world of all Time!) is said and then Charlie purses his lips, raises his eyebrows and tilts his head back. I see where those Daily Show guys get their material to work from. However I did enjoy his answers- If the point were for Bresson to lay everything out there on the line and explain everything perfectly with words about how he felt when he took the picture, then there would not be much point in taking the picture in the first place. I have heard from a friend that several years back PBS did a series on American photographers, and there is a bit of an interview with Winogrand. Supposedly both Winogrand and the interviewer are standing, and Winogrand is snapping off pictures as he was answering questions. That is something I would like to see. Has anyone seen it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karim Ghantous Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 John, I haven't heard of that PBS series. But on TV for a couple of years here in Australia we had Open Learning series on the ABC. One was photography which went for quite a few episodes. Which I'd taped them! Some very interesting photographers were interviewed including Winogrand. He was snapping away quite freely and he was quite relaxed about it while talking to the interviewer. Actually maybe we're talking about the same thing? In this one he was taking shots of some people throwing a frisbee etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john sypal Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 That sounds like what my friend was talking about. He said he had that part on VHS somewhere but he was not sure what ever happened to that tape. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 I managed to endure the whole interview but tried all the while to block out the interviewer who was very tiresome and patronising and hectoring. Worthwhile nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Look at Cartier-Bresson's eyes and you can clearly see at times his bafflement at why this orange tit was sent to interview him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frdchang Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 worst interviewer ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fran_ois_courtois Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 stupid and boring questions ... lead to tired and bored answers from HCB ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_t Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Charlie Rose is normally an intelligent interviewer. However, he seemed a bit awestruck in this interview, not his best effort by far. If anyone knows of the clip with Winogrand, I too would be very interested, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Blackwell Images Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 I too had to turn it off after about 5 minutes. I have seen at least one other interview with Cartier Bresson in which he seemed bored (and even annoyed at times). Some people, in their area of genius, just have a talent they can't express in order to teach others. So you constantly get "I just do it" or in the case with Cartier Bresson, "I just push the button." So in the case with host like Charlie Rose, this dynamic makes for an awkward hour-long interview. Where does one go with "I just push the button." “When you come to a fork in the road, take it ...” – Yogi Berra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.martin___ Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 I would love to see the Winogrand interview as well. In the meantime though, I just re-read Winogrand's interview with Barbara Diamonstein, which is online at: http://elmo.academyart.edu/study/ph101/Required%20reading/Winogrand%20Interview.htm A Leica is not a shovel: "D: Have you ever had any particularly difficult assignments or photographic moments? W: ... I don't think of it as difficult. It would be difficult if I were carrying something heavy, but I carry Leicas. You can't talk about it that way. I'm not operating a shovel and getting tired." Diamonstein's "Visions and Images: American Photographers on Photography" is one of my favourite books on photography. Worth looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-bug Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Keep in mind this is an interview for the general public, not just HCB fans or photographers for that matter. I'd like to see the outtakes. It seems like there may have been issues with Cartier-Bresson's hearing, which led Rose to almost shout at times. Rose didn't quite know how handle HCB's "Zen" answers to his quetions. Rose was a bit annoying with the constant "Why are you so great?" questions. There are a few moments of sheer insight, joy, and humor in the interview, though. Definitely inspiring and worth watching. Makes me want to go for a walk with my 50 Summicron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35mmdelux Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Charlie Rose is good with some interviewees. His problem, as that of many reporters, is that they over-step their bounds of expertise. Just yesterday for instance, the President of IRAN made Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes TV fame look like a full-on imbicil when discussing the Middle East. In Rose' defense, HCB wasn't a good educator anyway - that is obvious from any of his intervies. BTW his sketches suck. Why not have a photographer interview a photographer? At least they'd know what they're talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_a Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 If you are an HC-B fan, the DVD "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye" is worth seeing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_t Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 second the above recommendation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 I sort of watched the whole thing. My observations: The energy/age/mentaloutlook of the two people were too contrasty. Bresson, at the tail end of his life, slower, contempt, wiser. Rose in his career, uncomfortable for having to shout, trying to coin a phrase for the average viewer. Language barrier. Rose wants Bresson to define philosophical points when Bresson has marginal use of English and clearly can not express him self the way he would in French. Rose not getting Bresson's answers. Paraphrasing from memory: Bresson: "I'm an anarchist" Rose: ? Bresson "non violent" Rose: "in what way"? -- Bresson trying to say he is an anarchist but not one that Rose would want to coin - an anarchist who is violent and opposes any government to the means of using violence to take down any authority. When he says non violent that pretty much answers it all for me but Rose is clearly not getting it or wants to catch Bresson blurping something stupid. (for exploitation later perhaps) Rose: what would you like to have on your obituary? What a stupid question! Bresson is clearly living in the moment and is happy to be alive. Commenting on one photo that Bresson taken during his overseas travels. Bresson: "I had the most important thing in my pocket" Rose: "Money!" Rose clearly exposing himself. What and ass. I'm surprised they left it in the interview. Bresson: "no, film" Obviously. Bresson was wealthy. Money was no concern. Not of importance. Bresson just saying he was lucky to be there, have a camera and rolls of film to shoot. I liked the nice pieces of info Bresson remembered about the moments of taking his photographs. I also loved his phrase: "lucidity doesn't come with words." Clearly explaining the frame of mind that a photographer has when he is 'in the zen of taking a photo'. Rose doesn't get it so he keeps insisting Bresson explains the whole thing. Rose: "but how does it affect your work"? Again, even Bresson's language barrier could not combat this stupid question. Anyone defining the answer would be handing out cliche's. Anyway. I love Bresson but at the same time I am also of an opinion that it's time to move on and focus on other photographers as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dford Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Bresson is better seen then heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Why not have a photographer interview a photographer? As if. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 I had the most important thing in my pocket" Rose: "Money!" Jeez, you would have thought at least he would have put his knob first. Love Henri or leave him he was a milestone in photography. A character foremost with that magic third eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lutz Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 <i>jim a , aug 14, 2006; 02:07 p.m.<br> If you are an HC-B fan, the DVD "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye" is worth seeing.</i> I second that, too. I know both interviews and I thoroughly recommend Bütler's film, which unlocks the whole universe of HCB's thoughts and spirit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john sypal Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 "Why not have a photographer interview a photographer? At least they'd know what they're talking about." I would have liked for Avedon to have been the one to ask questions instead. Or Szarkowski... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claude_batmanghelidj Posted August 15, 2006 Share Posted August 15, 2006 Allen, tell me more about that third eye. What's it all about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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