“To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It’s a way of life”

Henri Cartier-Besson

WHO IS HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON:

Bresson developed a strong fascination with painting early on, and particularly with Surrealism. This lead to his passion for photography. He was also a photo journalist where he documented some very famous events, such as Gandhi’s funeral, china and even the liberation of Paris. His influence was through surrealism, and decided to make a photobook called “The Decisive Moment” which would define photography itself and be one of his most famous projects.

His photobook, ‘The Decisive Moment‘, is one of the most famous of its kind and explored his mastery of candid street photography.

The photographic master Henri Cartier-Bresson made some key observations about photography, translated as “the decisive moment” which is often (incorrectly) characterized as: “capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.

LINK: https://petapixel.com/the-decisive-moment/

The book ‘The decisive moment’ expresses Bresson beliefs about the ‘decisive moment’ there is in every photograph a individual takes.

AWARDS HE BRESSON HAS RECIEVED:

• 1986 Novecento Premio
• 1981 Grand Prix National de la Photographie
• 1975 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie
• 1975 Culture Prize
• 1964 Overseas Press Club of America Award
• 1960 Overseas Press Club of America Award
• 1959 Prix de la Société Française de Photographie
• 1954 Overseas Press Club of America Award
• 1953 A.S.M.P. Award
• 1948 Overseas Press Club of America Award

PHOTO ANALYSIS:

Cartier-Bresson uses photography to express news and document what is going on in the world. In this particular image you are able to see a young girl performing child labour and significantly struggling, even with the help of a young boy. However due to the girl being the main focus, as she is spread across the image, challenging the rule of thirds Cartier-Bresson is clearly documenting the force of child labour, especially the female sex.

Emotional Response:

This image shows the hardship of the Chinese Civil War and how it affected the labour that children went through. In this image you see a young girl is an awkward and painful position trying to drag some produce, this creates a melancholy picture and creates sympathy.

Visual – what we can see in the image

In the image there is a young girl carrying a load of products, she is across the whole landscape, as she is the main focus of the image. She has a rope across her shoulder which seems to cause her pain, this image could also be a metaphor for the children having ‘the weight of the world’ on her shoulders as the kids now how to provide for the families.

Contextual – who, when, where etc.. the story, background, impact

In November 1948, the great photographer went to shoot ‘the last days of Beijing’. He returned to China in 1958 to capture the results of the Maoist revolution. Images from both visits are brought together for the first time in an exhibition in Paris.

LINKS:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/jan/09/henri-cartier-bresson-china-breaking-free-of-its-past-in-pictures

https://www.whitefungus.com/henri-cartier-bresson-almost-goes-back-china

ST MALO PHOTOSHOOT:

I intend to use Cartier-Bresson work as inspiration for my St. Malo photoshoot. In his street photography he seems to have a variation between close-ups (where the individual knows the picture is being taken) and some long distance (where the individual could be unaware). In my photoshoot I will take long distance shots, and try and capture small intimate moments of people.

The exhibition ‘PLAYTIME’ presents images from Lakeman’s childhood memories from Fort Regent Leisure Centre. Will has dedicated the exhibition to his late brother Matthew, the brothers used to spend most of their time up at the Fort as Will states that “those were the best of times for us.” The exhibition displays a range of images of the fort made from artificial intelligence (A.I) which are an attempt to recreate Will’s childhood memories from his point of view.

Lakeman wanted to recrate his childhood memories of Fort Regent through a series of images. Will “didn’t care if the images he created weren’t correct/ didn’t fit other peoples memories of the Fort because he wanted to portray how he remembers the fort. The images link back to the theme of nostalgia as it will bring back many old memories from the ‘good ol’ days’ for older generations. It will also allow them to explore whether their memories of the fort were different to Wills as the A.I images may not match what they remember. The exhibition made me feel nostalgic in a different way, as there were a variety of images such as ones that I could relate to as it’s how I remembered the Fort and ones that I’ve been told stories about by the older generations. When looking at the variety of different images, the images that made me feel a strong sense of nostalgia were the ones that showed the Fort how I remembered it; Such as ‘Rampart Angles’ which showed the iconic blue flooring along the upper floor of Fort Regent which was bordered with a red railing. It brought back my own childhood memories, from when I would run along there when playing with my friends.

Will had different sections of his exhibition, In one of the sections, there were a series of images displayed on a light board. This cause the images to glow, exaggerating the vivid colours in he image which are exactly how Will remembers the memories.

Throughout the exhibition, there were three different scents that Will thought related to each section exhibition. For example there was a swimming pool scent where Lakeman has displayed his photos showing his childhood memories from the swimming pool. Will had also made a custom sound scape to fit the exhibition which made it unique and made me feel like I was able to visualise what Will’s memories looked like.

Will used A.I to create most of the images seen at the exhibition, using tools such as the ‘text-to-image’ generators. Will used this tool to generate images that linked back to his memories which have a unique outcome.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed the exhibition because it was different to other exhibitions as it had multiple aspects such as the soundtrack, scents, arcade game, darkened room with lightboxes. I found the different elements of the exhibition made it more interesting and interactive in a way as you could really try and visualise what Will was trying to show. The exhibition brought back some of my childhood memories and showed me what the Fort used to be like, as I have heard stories about it from older generations.