Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/30

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Subject: RE: [Leica] HCB Portraits
From: Paul Chefurka <Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 07:58:21 -0700

> From: Eric Welch [mailto:ewelch@ponyexpress.net]
> 
> At 08:14 PM 9/29/99 -0400, Chandos Michael Brown wrote:
> >But, then, I think August Sanders and Avedon are the patron 
> >saints of portrait photographers.
> 
> August Sanders, yes! And Arnold Newman.
> 

Nobody's mentioned Helmut Newton yet :-/  While I really like his rather
dark, fetishistic view of the people in his world, a friend commented that
Newton was really just a tease when it came to looking into the darkened
rooms of the soul.  Does anyone have a suggestion for a photographer whose
work might cause my flower-shooting friend to say "Now that's *dark*!"

And on the topic of the post, my opinions yesterday were coloured by the
fact that I had just dipped into the collection, and as luck would have it,
hadn't hit many of the high points.  After a more careful perusal, I'm
inclined to put a brick or two back into Henri's pedestal.  While I still
think the collection is a bit uneven (not HCB's fault, rather the editor's),
some of the pictures are iconic (like Sartre, Marilyn and Abbe Pierre) and
many of them show a refreshing humanity and respect for his subjects.  It
makes a great difference to your outlook when you haven't just gotten off a
two hour conference call with project managers and marketing droids...

Paul Chefurka