[Leica] re: hcb and faceless

[Photovilla@aol.com]

<<sal took me to task:


>Luggers,

>    Unfortunately, I must disagree with Kyle.....

>    I have seen signed Henri Cartier-Bresson prints. The Leica Gallery in

>New York City even has a few for sale.


though not quite for the right reasons -- i never said no signed HCB prints

existed,

only that he refused to sign early ones and that he didn't consider his work

fine-art.


my source on that is american photo sept/oct 1997, page 84, article by peter

halpert entitled "collecting: i want my hcb":


"cartier-bresson has always considered himself a photojournalist, not a

fine-art

photographer, and he has refused to limit the number of prints he makes of

any particular image"


"Magnum asked the esteemed photographer to consider approving and signing

his

early photos from their files. he steadfastly refused, saying they were made

for

reproduction and not exhibition -- which leaves collectors searching [for

early

signed work]."


kc>>

A few years ago I searched out and purchased two signed HCB prints. 

What I found is that the "greatest hits" type prints, such as "Behind the 
Gare" and "Hyres" (which I bought) are readily available signed, usually in 
ink on the front of the print. I think most were signed in his later years 
and some of the signatures are even notably "shaky" and gallery owners seem 
to value these prints a bit less.

I looked at over 100 prints at Galleries in NYC and New Orleans mostly. I 
ended up buying one out of NYC and one out of San Francisco.

The older (or vintage) prints from his work in Moscow, China and a couple 
other projects are almost never signed and command huge sums of money when 
found signed. Usually in pencil on the back. Nope, didn't manage to buy one 
of those even then! I wonder what they would go for now?

One other thing I noticed was that the 16x20 inch prints were often not that 
good. In the end I chose 11x14 prints as some of the images fall apart when 
printed large as the negs. are not perfect.

How much did I pay? Well, more than an M6...less than a Thambar!<g>

Also, for what it is worth, I found DDD book on HCB to be a bit "cheap" as he 
was supposed to be taking a photo for an article. A bit disingenuous if you 
ask me...(Bresson never asked, but didn't lie either.)

bests,
Rich
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