[Leica] Yes, H.C.-B. Was THAT Good?

[PetersonAG at NAVSEA.NAVY.MIL (Peterson Arthur G NSSC)]

Buzz,

I agree!  Wholeheartedly!  Absolutely!  Multiple shots couldn't matter less.
It's not just a question of snapping before a subject's heel touches the
water.  Anyone with a motor-driven camera can achieve that sort of thing
easily.  Rather, it's a matter of the incredible organization of---hence the
coherence and expressive impact of---the multiple elements that make up all
his pictures.  He's an absolute genius!  The Mozart of photography!  Without
wishing to be argumentative, I'd say to those who don't appreciate HCB's
photos---and this purely for their own benefit---just keep looking.

Art


-----Original Message-----
From: buzz.hausner@verizon.net [mailto:buzz.hausner@verizon.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 13:30
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] Yes, H.C.-B. Was THAT Good?

Surely you jest.  Yes, H.C.-B. was THAT good.  A perusal or even a quick
scan of any of his books or monographs will reveal startling image after
startling image; they are too numerous to nameor count.

I know many people try to establish their credibility by staking a position
contrary to accepted wisdom.  Sometimes this strategy works, but in the case
of Henri Cartier-Bresson it is doomed to fail.  The man is a genious whose
work s justly celebrated.  Where is it written that he can't take multiple
shots to get the one he wants?  How does that diminish the quality of the
final image?

Cartier-Bresson might not be one's favorite photographer, indeed, there are
and have been many great photographers and we can all recite a list of
compulsory veneration.  However, to deny that he was a great photographer is
pure folly if not egomoniacal nonsense.

Buzz Hausner
> 
> From: "Beddoe, Neil" <nbeddoe@lehman.com>
> Date: 2004/05/25 Tue PM 01:14:40 EDT
> To: "'Leica Users Group'" <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: [Leica] Was HCB that good?
> 
> I've been trawling through my memory and the only HCB pics I remember as
> being any good are the jump, On the Banks of the Marne and the one with
the
> fat man with the hat on in front of the wall with the kids running about.
> All the others I can remember are just sort of OK.  There are plenty of
> other photographers who have each produced dozens of pictures that stick
in
> my mind.
> 
> Probably says more about me than it does about HCB though.
> 
> And yes, I know he isn't dead yet.
> 
> Neil> 

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