Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/05/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Wed, 8 May 1996, Edward Meyers wrote: > Since Monsieur Cartier-Bresson didn't and doesn't process his own > films and doesn't make his own prints, I'd say that he won't tell > you. The guy who used to do it is Pierre Gassman of Pictorial labs > in Paris. Perhaps the son of Pierre will talk. But perhaps not. > Ed Meyers I am aware that HCB did not do his own dark-room work, but from the interviews with him that I have read, it is clear that he did pay attention to the processing that was used and certainly knew enough to instruct his printer as to the kind of prints that he wanted. Hating dark-room work and being ignorant of the way in which it is done are two very different things and while the former probably will not prevent one from taking good B&W pictures, that latter certainly can. His work certainly bears this out: he clearly sought for and acheived a very specific kind of `look' to his photographs over the course of many years, many cameras and many different materials. I have read interviews with him in which he speaks of the films that he uses and the techniques used in the darkroom on his behalf and he certainly sounds knowledgable enough. I posted my question because I have never heard any detailed account of the various processes used or the philosophy behind them: such may never have been published, but I am pretty sure that HCB himself as well as his printer could go a long way to provide such an account. Gary