Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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