[Leica] RE: Cartier Bresson and the 6 exposures.

[ted grant <75501.3002@compuserve.com>]

Jem wrote:

<<<Henri Cartier Bresson used this technique a lot. That guy jumping across
a puddle, he fell in 50 times before HCB reckoned  he'd got 6 frames of him
exactly at the right point.>>

Jem,

Gee don't destroy my admiration of HCB as seeing, reacting with reflexes of
a cat and capturing the one magnificent image with one intinctive click of
the shutter! 

Please don't tell me he is simply another "do it again" photographer, who
used the, "do it one more time!" a half dozen or more times to get the one
image that has stood as a great photo and admired by so many for years.

He may have asked people to do something again on occasion, but God I hope
this wasn't the case in the water jumping photograph, as I'll be very
disillusioned and disappointed.

And to some degree this great photographer's __"reflex to the action"__
ability will be tarnished. Not much, nevertheless tarnished.   

Simply because if you ask someone to re-enact an action enough times (50 as
you say) is bound to get it right! And that isn't what I thought HCB was
all about these many years. It has always been my belief: 

          "He saw! He shot! He captured the decisive moment!  ONE EXPOSURE!

Is there anyone out there who can absolutely confirm he asked this "model"
to reenact the jump 50 times?  If the truth is he did, I almost don't want
to know as he becomes just like the rest of us instead of the brilliant
"Decisive Moment" photographer we admire for his quickness of trigger
finger.

ted