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HCB & the "Camera Dance"

I found this short movie about HCB in the library. It was made when he was about in his '80's or so, and had long ago stopped taking pictures and was pursuing his love of drawing.

The most remarkable thing in the film was footage of him actually working and taking pictures in the street. There is one sequence of him using a screw mount Leica. He is shown making a series of shots with the camera never leaving his eye and his hand darting up to turn the film advance knob! Very fast!

His insights into his work were interesting, the photography was not important, it was the "reportage", the "being there" that was so important to him. He made some B&W, documentary films during the Spanish Civil War, in the late '30's, and during the liberation of Paris. Some of these movies scenes were inter-cut with his famous stills of the same shots, so the movie scene dissolved into the still shot we have all seen.

He spoke about "Street Photography" being a dance, in one truly amazing sequence he was shown working on the street and moving fast to get ahead of his subject, at just the "Decisive Moment" he turned and pirouetted on one foot as he made the shot, a real "Camera Dance".

I enjoyed the movie and recommend it. It is always instructional to see one of the "Gods" at work......and play.

The movie was made by Sarah Moon. A review of the film from the New York Times is included below.

This documentary is a portrait of 20th century French photographer and filmmaker Henri Cartier-Bresson. Works by Cartier-Bresson are interspersed with discourse by the artist. He discusses his style, his interest in patterns in natural forms, and essence in portraits, as well as his love for drawing. In his still-photography and filmmaking, the immediacy of his imagery and its documentary flavor, he terms "reportage." Friends, colleagues, and art critics comment on the artist's life and works, adding insight and appreciation to one of the giants of photography. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter

Runback

Coach

Street Photography Canon

In the last month I have read the "Complete Street Photography Canon". In no particular order.

• "The Decisive Moment" Henri Cartier-Bresson
• "Bystander: A History of Street Photography" Colin Westerbeck & Joel Meyerowitz
• "Winogrand 1964" Garry Winogrand

These are three very different books with a common thread. The first is a collection of photographs taken by a young photographer on his travels around the world. It is hard to know which of these shots was made "on assignment" and which because this is what the man did, take pictures. These times, the '30's and '40's, were the birth of the picture magazine as we know it.

He established the soul and heart of documentary still photography, he was making it up as he went along. I know there were many photographers who had worked in this genre before, as revealed in the second book in the list. HCB also made motion picture documentaries, notably of the Spanish Civil War. These were in black and white and filled with stunning images.

As with every great artist, HCB took what went before and promptly discarded it all. He became the standard by which all "Street Photography" is measured. He has influenced countless photographers and still casts a long, rich, detail filled shadow.

The second volume in the Canon is as titled, a history. It is a very well researched and edited story of street photography. The fascinating thread running through this book is the connected-ness that binds all street photographers. There is really nothing new, and everything is new. Each generation learns and each teaches. This book is filled with images and photographers that will be new and eye opening to you.

The last book is the most intensely focused and personal of the three. It is literaly a road trip, in the spirit of "the Americans" by Robert Frank, across the United States in 1964. We see much of the then current, culture, fashion and style. The pictures are not dated, they are still fresh and raw.

All of the pictures in this book are hard to look at and impossible not to. The color shots are as abstracted as the black and white. Abstracted in the sense of seeing something new and different in what is seen everyday. These are not abstract images, they are very real.

HCB's pictures are by his own admission, "I was here and this is what I saw", Winogrand's are like an unavoidable mirror held in your face forcing you to see what you might not choose to be shown.

I enjoyed all of the books and all are worth return visits and study. These three books as reference and inspiration, shooting as many pictures as possible, and a frequent, intellengent critique of your work will make you a better street photographer.