bob l Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Interesting site. Photographs by HCB http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/cb/index.htm Enjoy, Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_bender Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 This is a shortened part of the full "tete a tete" collection of HCB's portraits (and nothing but the portraits), which can be found at Washington Post site, if I remember correctly.There is a sight called www.google.comIf one makes a search for the book/collection title... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Frankly, as much as I appreciate Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment work, I've always felt that his portraiture sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam_portera Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Bill What exactly do you think sucks about HCB's work? I'm really curious becasue when you factor in that most of this work was done from the early '30's to early '40's I think its fantastic. HCB didn't have Pentax 6x7's or quantum Qflashes, He made do with capturing the subject in his or her enviroment With a simple Leica and 50mm lens. Classic. His photos define photography for me. None of it is staged. All are as real to life as you or I . "Our task is to perceive reality, almost simultaneously recording it in the sketchbook which is our camera. We must neither try to manipulate reality while we are shooting, nor manipulate the results in the darkroom. These tricks are patenly discernable to those who have eyes to see." HCB- The Decisive Moment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_kelly1 Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 "Real to life?" -nonsense, you guys are both digital artifacts, like me. Anyway, HCB's portraits are very uneven. the Faulkner-with-dogs and the Chanel lack any graphic strength and are just snaps; whereas his Sartre, Capote and above all his Matisse are definitive environmental portraits. At least he didn't pour the same sauce over everyone, like most of Avedon......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nowhereman Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 >> I've always felt that his portraiture sucks Thanks, that's really an articulate statement. In fact, many of his portraits captured the essence of person or situation. For example, there's the one of Nehru together with Lord and Lady Mountbatten at a ceremony for Indian independence for which Mountbatten had been sent as viceroy to sign. Mountbatten is tanding, serious, facing a crowd while his wife and Nehru are guffawing over a shared joke. Today, we know that they were lovers, which HCB could not have known when he took the picture. In another picture, Mme Curie and her husband are standing in identical postures. In still another, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are sitting with the Duke fixed in an admiring look at the Duchess -- they both look emply. I could go on and on. HCB was a fantastic portraitist, whose style was later picked up by Arnold Newman. --Mitch/Bangkok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_kelly1 Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Mitch, the virtues you are assigning to those shots depend on inside dope or a knowledge of historical contex. When you remove them, what is left? For example,I wish I were rich enough to buy a print of Avedon's brilliant shot of Andy Warhol showing the scar he got when he was shot by Valerie Solanas of S.C.U.M. -The Society for Cutting Up Men. Warhol is doing a take-off, with his usual straight face, of the moment when Lyndon Johnson grossed out the Washington press corps by showing them his appendectomy scar. It was a moment of supreme arrogance -LBJ controlled both houses of congress and had a supreme court that was 6-3 in his favor- and it was also a moment of truly stupid bad taste in which Johnson created a really durable image of himself as a fool. Warhol, whose art consisted mostly of carefully targeted replication of tasteless things, is Cutting Up LBJ by replicating it. And Avedon replicates him replicating it, as brilliant a Portrait of the Artist as I can imagine. But its brilliance is not photographic. It depends on you knowing the context, or in this case, the multiple contexts. "You hadda be there." As a photograph it gets a B-.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spearhead Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 As a portraitist, I'd much rather see Avedon, Arbus, Disfarmer, and a whole host of others. The pandering to HCB on this forum is embarrassing, it's a lot like the way Adams name pops up constantly on the nature forums. Music and Portraits Blog: Life in Portugal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 HCB captures the essence of the person...in a moment in time... i did NOT appreciate Karsh.i am now in awe. sure,its not my way...i shoot loose and go for "spirit". the hardest portrait assignment i had to do...a simple straight shot of a smiling otho-dentist for a brochure!!!people mostly hate my portraits,but i do them anyway!and that comment about Ansel..wow everybody here is better than all the great names,wonder which planet i've been too. Try duplicate those "poor" images.There are lots of willing subjects,dress 'em up,try do exact copies...thats what painters do... Hey and the great outdoors is also there.Go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_kelly1 Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Jeff, you might want to look up "pander."...................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd thacker Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 <I>At least he didn't pour the same sauce over everyone, like most of Avedon.........</I><P> Yep. Well said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd thacker Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Some of his portraits are brilliant - in particular, I've always liked the Matisse one, but also the portrait of Duchamp, which I think is splendid (and have we mentioned the Capote portrait yet?). While many other of the portraits . . . lose something in the move from that moment to this - too formalist, and perhaps to self-consciously informal. But that's the nature of the beast, isn't it? You don't get the truly seminal, great portraits, without also a lot of so-so ones, or dross, even. Even God produces dross, once in a while - just look around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nowhereman Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 >>Mitch, the virtues you are assigning to those shots depend on inside dope>>or a knowledge of historical contex. When you remove them, what is left? But that's the point! For example, HCB didn't know that Nehru and Lady Mountbatten were lovers, but his picture shows how they react to each other. HCB portaits often show the esence of the subjects. --Mitch/Bangkok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 The Nehru/Mountbatten picture is a "decisive moment," of which he is unquestionably the master, not a portrait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene_scherba Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 I agree with Jeff Spirer. HCB should be banned from this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_bender Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Or, to put it a bit differently,<br> in the forum infested with spirers and scherbas there is no place for HCB references. Quite.<Br>With marvellous lack of sensitivity to the ironic in life, they just voted him out of their nice company.<br>What, on a more serious note, is telling. Because seeing philosophical, ironic etc. <b>in life itself</b> is quintessential to the HCB vision. People blind to that are ready to dismiss his art as snapshots.<br>Some see irony in life and wince at crudeness of letterman "jokes" - others guffaw at "comedian" jim carey's crown achievement - butt talk.<p>Being subtle and enlightened by artistic tradition, HCB work presupposes intelligence on the part of the viewer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene_scherba Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Gee, I was exactly being <em>ironic</em>. I do <em>not</em> agree with Jeff Spirer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam_portera Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Art is subjective and fluid. What is perceived as beutiful and soulful to me maybe a snap shop to you. So what are we discussing here? HCB wasn't the greatest? Maybe not but those who say he should be banned here are completely out of line. I think sprier's just angry that HCB used a Leica and not a Konica Hexar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene_scherba Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Too bad some people don't understand irony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene_scherba Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Jeff Spirer essentially believes that "trying to contain art" is a bad thing. He also believes that HCB fans "try to contain" other people's art within HCB's framework. The problem with Jeff Spirer's beliefs is that "containing" criticism is also a bad thing. And by suggesting that HCB should be banned from discussing, we are trying to "contain" criticism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_bender Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 sorry, sorry, and all that. wasn't reading well enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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