Henri Cartier-Bresson, beyond the 'decisive moment' and photographing the fleeting scene.

[inoneeye]

With his attitude toward post processing including cropping I think Bresson considered most images fully baked once captured. The narrative may live beyond the frame but the image and expression was finished. Straight. That’s part of his appeal…. the ability to capture a full frame completed image. But of course He was fortunate enough to have one of the masters of the darkroom at Magnum handling his negatives. 
For many others the post may be very expressive and significant to the narrative.

[je ne regrette rien]

34 minutes ago, samstevens said:

That's a little too calcified.

The photographer's being flows in the pictures they take, what they are and what they aren't. The fills and the voids. The fulfilled and the unfulfilled. It's not calcified how I see it, it is totally fluid. It becomes, ebbs and flows, changes as we change.

Edited January 17, 2023 by je ne regrette rien

[je ne regrette rien]

32 minutes ago, inoneeye said:

With his attitude toward post processing including cropping

As a matter of fact HCB's attitude towards post-processing has a different origin from where I stand: he changed the way photographers related to the news world. Before his time, papers and magazines acquired total rights over the pictures and did with them whatever they deemed useful. If the needed a portrait format, the turned a landscape into one. That's what HCB objected to.

The black frame was the seal of his choice not to be altered by others than himself.

In fact, "Derrière la gare Saint-Lazare", one of the most iconic of his pictures, a miracle capture of the decisive moment, was cropped. If I remember well a significant vertical portion on the left hand side was eliminated.

Not "fully baked", simply the reaffirmation of the author's choice. His choice.

Edited January 17, 2023 by je ne regrette rien

[samstevens]

42 minutes ago, inoneeye said:

With his attitude toward post processing including cropping I think Bresson considered most images fully baked once captured. The narrative may live beyond the frame but the image and expression was finished. Straight. That’s part of his appeal…. the ability to capture a full frame completed image. But of course He was fortunate enough to have one of the masters of the darkroom at Magnum handling his negatives. 
For many others the post may be very expressive and significant to the narrative.

Nice description. Thanks. Captures some significant things about Bresson and his photos. And may explain to me more clearly why he appeals to me as well as why others appeal to me more, some who I think leave things within the frame more open-ended.

[AlanKlein]

6 hours ago, inoneeye said:

With his attitude toward post processing including cropping I think Bresson considered most images fully baked once captured. The narrative may live beyond the frame but the image and expression was finished. Straight. That’s part of his appeal…. the ability to capture a full frame completed image. But of course He was fortunate enough to have one of the masters of the darkroom at Magnum handling his negatives. 
For many others the post may be very expressive and significant to the narrative.

Many slide shooters, especially photojournalists,  were very good at capturing the whole photo in the camera with no cropping needed afterwards.  Even amateurs get good at this after awhile.  You have little choice. 

[inoneeye]

🤔 HCB slideshow! That would be something. Slideshow that didn’t put me to sleep.

Edited January 18, 2023 by inoneeye

[samstevens]

12 minutes ago, inoneeye said:

🤔 HCB slideshow! That would be something. Slideshow that didn’t put me to sleep.

Careful. It could be HCB and relatives at annual family picnic. Uncropped. 

[Allen Herbert]

"He was fortunate enough to have one of the masters of the darkroom at Magnum handling his negatives" . Sam.

Okay, his photography was all about the darkroom., little else. Sam, has produced masterpieces of photography,, with little support of the darkroom,;))

Sad, folk, with little understanding of Art, or, the Art of street photography. But they have big mouths.

Silly simplistic mouths, who rarely take a photo other than a bootlace, or, some other banal thing. They then declare it as Art of photography. And their simplistic supporters shout hooray....need I say more.   

Hey Ho. That's life.