who is HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON and what do they do?

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON is a french humanist photographer, who was born in 1908 and is considered the master of the candid portraiture genre. CARTIER-BRESSON also pioneered the genre of street photography too. He viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. Their family supported financially, so they could pursue photography freely. In 1947, CARTIER-BRESSON along with a few other photographers founded Magnum Photos. They also achieved international recognition when they covered Gandhi’s funeral.

mood board of HENRI CARTIER-BRESSONS photographs

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analysis of HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON image

The lighting in this photograph is natural, as CARTIER-BRESSON has shot in a natural landscape, not in a studio location. The light is flat, as there are no harsh shadows, which would be created by harsh lighting. This photograph is overexposed as the whites are overblown and this means that the whites take over the darks. CARTIER-BRESSON would have been using a wide angled lens, as the shot is taken from close up, however, everything is well placed in the shot. The depth of field is sharp. CARTIER-BRESSON has shot in black and white, which makes the photograph look very poignant and melancholy. The photograph has a very strong tonal range, as there is a balance between lights and darks. The dark darks are very bold and stand out well on the light whites. All of the different textures, including the rubble on the ground, the cracks in the buildings, and the materials of the clothes, add to the photograph and its complexity. This complexity increases the interest of the photograph for the viewer. In the background, there is a repetition of the houses, as they are in lines and repeat until they can not be seen. The composition of the photograph is symmetrical, which adds to the overall aesthetics of the photograph, as when it looks balanced, it looks clean and easy on the eye. The figures are framed by a broken wall, which brings up the notion of ‘their world’ and ‘our world’, and how we are not allowed in. ‘Their world’ looks like dystopia compared to ours, as it is broken, and run down. The figures act as leading lines into ‘their world’, they guide the viewers’ eyes into and past the broken wall into a place of suffering. HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON took this photo in Seville in Spain in 1933. If you had not known the date this photograph was taken, you might have thought it was shot during the Spanish War, which was in 1936-9, due to the photograph being situated in a run down place. However, the fact it was taken in 1933 gives an eerie feel to the photograph as the figures are in an area ‘attacked’ by a war that hasn’t even happened yet.

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSONS contribution to magnum photo agency

CARTIER-BRESSON and the rest of the founders split assignments between the members of the agency. CARTIER-BRESSON covered many areas and achieved recognition. Magnums mission was to ‘feel the pulse’ of the times.

contrasting to TRENT PARKE

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similarities

• both photograph in black and white
• both photograph individuals in a natural environment
• both photograph in a very creative way

differences

• TRENT PARKE photographs in a more abstract way
• TRENT PARKE photographs and edits to enhance the contrast, to create stronger blacks and whites
• TRENT PARKE photographs more freely
• TRENT PARKE photographs with less focus
• HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON captures more of a flat photograph
• HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON photographs have a lower contrast
• HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON photographs are centered around culture

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I choose this old lady as a subject for my portrait as i felt compelled towards her cigarette. At such a stage in her life where she should be worried about risks towards her health she is peacefully smoking. This is interesting as it makes the audience wonder what events have happened in her life to make her relaxed from a cigarette. Or it could be that she is addicted and needs to smoke to be satisfied. I choose to capture the image close to her and ensuring her hands in the v formation is at focus. I asked her to angle her eyes slightly away from the lens to capture her true emotion. On the second photo i dropped the color to black and white. I felt the tones and contrast showed her wonderful age.

Portrait

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I choose Greg as the model as i felt his unique character gave an incredible impression on me. The long hair and bushy beard suggests he is laid back. I wanted to capture his expression by having him glance directly into the camera lens.

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Street photography, also sometimes called candid photography, is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places.

Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment. Though people usually feature directly, street photography might be absent of people and can be of an object or environment where the image projects a decidedly human character in facsimile or aesthetic.

Street photography can be described as a genre which aims at capturing opportunistic moments of an unsuspecting urban public space within a camera’s frame. Although the word street can be found in the very name of the movement, this sub-genre of photography does not strictly demand that the image is made on the actual street. 

Boogie

Boogie is a photographer from Serbia, based in Brooklyn, New York. He is known for his documentary and portrait photographs of people on the margins of society and for his street photography. His work has been published in The New York Times and others.

He shows the world a disturbing reality of living in Brooklyn New York. In his photography he displays people that have tattoos which most likely are in a gang also photographs people using drugs and with guns or some object that can be used to cause harm. He created the shocking image of his city exposing it for all the bad things that go on around all the people that live there and are oblivious to the shady part of the city. he shows a different reality that for example a tourist would see.

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Visual:

The black and white of the image is very common in Ansel Adams work, with dark sharp shades on the walls and piano, with a very clear contrast. There’s no texture as the objects in the image are basic shapes with flat surfaces, not leaving much surface for reflective light. The subjects posture imitates the arms stand and lid of the piano, linking the the subjects environment to himself. The image focal point is the piano, with Igor Stravinsky located in the left bottom corner.

Technical:

The lighting of this image is generally quite bright, seemingly taken with daylight. The image looks generally underexposed, with a high contrast between the soft grey toned walls, and the black piano lid and stand. The aperture has a large depth of field, and the shutter speed seems to be quite short, maybe 1/320 as the image looks quite focused and sharp.

Contextual+Conceptual

Newman liked to capture the essence of his models in all his images, and so chose to have them in their natural environments. Here he had Igor Stravinsky who was an influential composer, and therefore he positioned him by a piano

It is important we look at other examples of project work for ideas…but also to see how other students have performed and scored across the Assessment Objectives

Assessment Criteria

You must spend some time during Monday’s lesson to complete some peer assessment and must use the table below to complete this simple task…

Start by looking each of these blogs by previous students…

Nathan Healey

Orla Worthington

Stanley Lucas

Ansel Adams was born on the 20th or February, 1902 in San Fransisco, California. He is one of the most important portrait photographers in the 20th century, creating iconic black and white photographs that established photography as a fine art. Adams particularly photographed famous people such as Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe.

Lots of his work focused on photography of people in their natural or working environment, where the subject feels and looks most comfortable. ” There are many things that are very false about photography when it is accepted without question,”

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