My adventures in streetphotograhy #2
I studied my idol Henri Cartier-Bresson more closely, before the next photo-hike in town. I really started to feel that I could understand how he was thinking and what ticked him about this kind of photography. Without comparing myself at all to his genius, I have always had a soft spot for surrealism too and since Bresson was educated and schooled in the surrealist idea and tradition, I sort of felt the same kind of urge and impulsiveness that he expressively have stated as his own strength and weakness.
Composition #1
I remember that I waited a long time for someone or something to come along and give the shot life. I guess I did not have the same patience as Cartier-Bresson was famous for. But at least I had an idea :-)
"The decisive moment"
I must have watched and listened to this video dozens of times. I practically sucked every single information out of his description of his photographic urge, and I sympathized a lot with him
One thing is though, to understand the ideas, another thing is to realize it in the real life. As Cartier-Bresson correctly says in the film above, there are not many photos that you can look at for more than a minute without getting bored. Over a career of 60 years or so, he must have shot millions of photographs, but just a few dozen of those became masterpieces. Rome was not build in a day.
Composition #2"
It was a cold day and none of the shots I got with people in them were any good. Waiting around for too long meant freezing my ass off
I really found out that I strongly prefer black and white. It just simplifies the expression to the forms and concepts. Colours don´t really add to the mix, rather they distract. It is the ideas in the artistic expression that is interesting to me not what colour they are.
I really like the feeling that things and people can take on a completely new meaning depending on the way they are framed by the photographer and his ability to fire at that exact decisive moment. It is elusive, but everywhere at the same time. How exhilarating :-)
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My adventures in Streetphotography:
Part 1
You have chosen the toughest measure. If you want to get shots like Henri Cartier-Bresson, you have to have patience. ANd you have to have human element. Remember, he said: “I'm not interested in photography, I'm interested in life!”
You are absolutely right my friend :-) ... but I would dare to say that he had a certain distance to life that is also necessary. He rarely falls into the trap of sentimentalism, rather you could say he uses people to bring life, but life as and artistic expression, not as "friend". His portraits are a good illustration. He does not care to portray people in the usually thought way, but rather as a tool for showing his own expression of his feeling towards them. He has also said ... "I love people and I hate people" :-)
The inclusion of the Cartier-Bresson video really made my morning. I watched it, then went on a journey searching out more of his work and commentary. Wow...thank you for the short adventure!
It is a GREAT video indeed. Rarely have I heard an artist express his thoughts and ideas so rigorously and straight up. VERY inspiring .-)