Re[3]: [Leica] RE: Cartier Bresson and the 6 exposures.

[Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>]

At 10:06 AM 12/2/97 -0500, you wrote:

I was joking about Cartier-Bresson being a painter. He is, but I don' t
know any painters out there doing spot news. So it's pretty far from my
main point.

>     wants a news photo to be contrived.  But Cartier-Bresson's photographs 
>     are something other than photojournalism (even if photojournalism had 
>     been the happenstance of their creation!): they are works of art.  And 
>     as such, they are self-sufficient, and we need not be concerned with 
>     how they were created or with what the artist may or may not choose to 
>     call himself, because nothing in their means of creation and nothing 
>     about the artist himself can ever affect their inherent and enduring 
>     value as works of art.

I have to disagree. It is a part of his esthetic that his pictures are
unposed. That they are a capturing of history (I don't say it nearly as
eloquently as he does!) as he anticipates it. They are real pictures of
real situations. For him, that's what's important, and thus what makes his
pictures great to me. They are true to his intent.

Other photographers use the medium in other ways. Those, too, are
legitimate uses of photography. But, I think the greatest strength in
photography is that which differentiates it from other media, such as
painting and music, poetry and sculpture. It's capturing fleeting moments
of time forever for us to look at. That's what gives his pictures their
special quality to me. 

I can appreciate everything you do about them as well. The tone, line,
modulation of black and white. But in addition what I like is also that
they weren't "made up." They were as they were. It's not only art, it's
history. What greater tool is there that combines those two so well?

Dosineau's pictures, based on this argument, are not of the same value.
They are pretty, nice, and all that, but they are NOT history. They're
actors playing for the camera. Cool to look at, but not nearly as
meaningful to me. 

Whatever turns your crank, I'm all for it. I like my stuff straight.
==========

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
                       -H.W. Longfellow