Re: [Leica] From the man himself

["Gerry Walden" <gwpix@hotmail.com>]

Dan

Thanks for posting this very interesting insight into HCB's methods of 
working, and clarifying his approach to his work.

Gerry
www.gwpics.com


>From: Dan Cardish <dcardish@sympatico.ca>
>Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
>To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
>Subject: [Leica] From the man himself
>Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:33:09 -0500
>
>This is a copy of a post I made to the LUG a few years ago, but I thought
>it might be appropriate to post it again
>
>May the copyright gods forgive me.
>
>This is a letter to the editor written by Henri Cartier Bresson published
>in the November/December 1997 issue of American Photo magazine.  I have
>copied it here completely.  The most interesting paragraph is the second to
>last.  My interjections are in [square brackets].  I am assuming the letter
>itself is © copyright Henri Cartier Bresson and/or American Photo.
>____
>
>"Yesterday, just before leaving Provence, I received the issue of American
>Photo [Sept/Oct 1997] that gives such an important space to what has kept
>me busy for some 70 years.  I want to thank you for it and to transmit my
>thanks to everyone who took the trouble to write about my shooting.
>
>"May I express one reservation-the text relating to money matters, i.e.,
>print sales.  Would you please stress in your next issue that my
>representative for collector prints is Helen Wright, 135 E. 74th St., New
>York, NY 10021, and that all sales of these prints-to individual collectors
>and dealers alike-are made through her.
>
>"Would you also please also point out that as far as photography is
>concerned, I only enjoyed, and still do, the actual shooting.  Printing has
>never been a pleasure.  Real [italicized in original] vintage prints,
>meaning that I printed them with trouble by myself at about the time the
>photograph was taken were few.  Many of these were given to Julien Levy,
>who have me my first U.S. exhibit.  As far as I can remember, I also gave
>several prints to Lincoln Kirstein, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, Monroe
>Wheeler, Dorothy Norman, and other close friends as souvenirs, tokens of
>friendship.  If I had not, I should try and print again for them.  Anyhow,
>one does not keep accounts of friendships.
>
>"All the so-called vintage prints I have heard of that are on the
>market-those with the Magnum agency stamp-were printed in a rush for
>magazine publication, and I never [italicized in original] gave them even a
>glance of approval.  After publication they remained in the drawers of the
>archives of various magazines or agents waiting for future publication.
>The engraving prints for my books are put aside and have never been for
>sale.  As far as I am concerned, printing is a profession.  Printers spend
>their time in the dark in a communion of vision with the photographer, and
>I then sign the result of this team work-a real collaboration.
>
>"I am sorry to bother you with all this, but I felt it necessary to clarify
>my thoughts about the few prints I made myself before the war, or just
>after, as a token of friendship."
>
>
>
>
>--
>To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html


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