Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/06/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Lugnuts=85 It seems strange to be writing this, but I'm in Paris this week for the A= ir Show. I was alerted to an Henri-Cartier Bresson exhibition here (in the A= ir France in-flight magazine) so, M6 on my shoulder, the wife and I subwayed= off to a very nice photography museum which had 180 HCB prints on display= taken from the out-of-print book "The Europeans," many of which I'm sure you all know. The prints are all full frame, ranging from 10x15 to about 16x24, all including the black edge (thin) of the negative outside of the image befo= re the sprocket holes. In a series taken in Ireland in 1953, the sprocket holes protrude into the image, crooked relative to the film, which is jarring and ugly and must be considered a camera malfunction of some type= =2E Interested that they were included uncropped with holes. = Print quality is excellent, surprisingly so given the negatives' ages and= the technology available through the decades, which eliminates nearly all= excuses for us to produce anything less than stunning pictures with the equipment currently available. One shot taken of a couple in a train was almost translucent in its quality and remarkable. I have always respected HCB's work, but have been reimpressed by much of = a lifetime of finding and capturing decisive moments. If you all have a chance, revisit HCB's eye. BTW, he's reported as 88 years old and still active, visiting the Louvre Museum painters every Wednesday. Maybe I'll trundle over there in a few days and try to catch a glimpse at a living legend. I used to be a student of John G. Morris, another of the Magnum founders, and maybe he remembers him. Bonsoir, David W. Almy Annapolis, Maryland (temporarily relocated)