Introduction

Bresson felt as if a camera enabled him to connect with the world and in his earlier years he travelled extensively, visiting places from Europe to Africa, this enabled him to connect with the world and absorb various cultures.

Bresson captured the movement of people through the world. He was a humanist photographer who is often described as a master of candid photography, where the subject is often unaware the photo is being taken and they are not posing. Bresson looks for the perfect moment using his heart to find things which connect humanity. He described his approach to photography as hunting as he was constantly looking and waiting for the perfect moment to capture, like an animal searching for prey.

His camera:

Henri Cartier Bresson was known for using a Leica rangefinder with a 50mm lens. Leica rangefinders were seen as a revolutionary tool, especially during Bresson’s time, and they were a huge step forward in the world of photography. These cameras were compact, reliable, and their design was more discreet compared to the other larger cameras of this era, this meant they were a great tool for Bresson as it enabled him to take more photos without the subject being aware. These cameras were an essential development for street photography as they had a quick and unobtrusive shooting style. Another reason why Bresson favoured the Leica rangefinder is due to their stealthy nature.

The Decisive Moment:

The Decisive Moment (Images à la Sauvette in French) is one of the greatest photography books ever published. It brings together photographs from the first twenty years of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s career. The book was published in 1952 by Verve, with an original cover by Matisse. It was the result of a collaboration between the photographer, the famous art critic and publisher Tériade, and the painter, at the peak of his career. The American version, published the same year by Simon and Schuster, was the first to introduce the now-famous expression “decisive moment.” It reveals the intrinsic duality of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work, the combination of intimate interpretation with documentary observation, received tremendous critical acclaim within the art world and is considered a “bible for photographers,” in the words of photographer Robert Capa. It remains an essential reference for photographers to this day. The original book, now out of print, has become a collector’s item. Henri Cartier-Bresson aimed to make this classic photography book accessible again, in a smaller and practical format, at an affordable price.

Analysis:

This black and white image by Henri Cartier Bresson contains leading lines which guide the viewers eyes to the figure who is jumping. The silhouette of the figure in the reflection in the puddle creates a sense of balance with the tower that is in the background as they are in opposite corners and almost symmetrical. The outer frame contains a negative space which allows the detail within the inner frame to have space to breath.

Reflect on your final design ideas and explain in some detail how well you realised your intentions and reflect on what you learned/ What could you improve? How?

Picture story 1:

After editing all the images seen above, I realised exactly what I wanted to do for my first picture story. I really liked the blue in the right picture so I knew that I had to have blue and I also liked the images that I produced in black and white so I also knew that black and white had to be included in my picture story. I learned that boarders make the picture story look better so I applied this realisation towards all of my picture stories. I realised that I had produced many pictures of people and landscapes of St Malo, so I knew that for this picture story I wanted to include loads of people and little landscapes as I thought that St Malo was about the people. However making the landscape in blue meant that even though it was the only picture in this picture story that had no people, the colour attracted attention towards the image. The title was definitely my highest point. I really loved the contrast of fonts in the title and I think that it look perfect. However I think that the placements of images, especially the ones in the left, could have been better and more spaced out. The picture story could have been more colourful to attract even more attention. Like putting the boarders around images as the colours of the french flag.

Picture story 2:

In all honesty, I don’t really liked this final product. The random shapes and colours make it look quite tacky and strange. My intention towards this paper story was to make it as colourful as possible to show how bright and important the French are, hence the title. I wanted to have the images in colour with the people highlighted to highlight the ‘aura’ they have. However I think it looks quite random and boring. Although I like how colourful the picture story is, I don’t like the different colours. I feel like if I had used different shades of the same colour like pink, and placed the shapes more strategically, the picture story would have looked bette. However I do like the contrast between the people being selected in colour and the background being black and white. It looks really unique. I learnt that I should have taken more time and patience towards this picture story so that it would reach the potential it had.

Picture story 3:

For this picture story, I realised that most of the images I produced for this picture story, had brown tones, so I knew that I wanted to make a picture story that had a brown theme. However I soon realised that I shouldn’t have decided a brown theme as the two photos on the bottom had nothing to do with brown so those two images look quite random and out of place. I should’ve looked for images that had brown tones or brown obstacles. I definitely knew that I wanted to make the title brown and French so I did and I really liked the outcome. It makes it ‘authentic’. The two images above were one of my favourite images I produced and edited. I loved the tones and aesthetic of the images. I loved everything about it. This picture story would have been perfect if I had all the images in it with a brown theme. I do like this picture story but I think that this picture story could’ve had many improvements.

Evaluation:

Overall, I’m satisfied with my final picture stories. My images are high quality and edited nicely. I also think that I had good concepts and ideas towards my picture stories.

In summary, my picture stories has many improvements to overcome, improvements that I need to take into consideration in the future. My picture stories could’ve been more creative and out of the box and so could’ve my titles. I think that my second and third picture story, specifically, lacked creativity. I need to incorporate different styles and techniques like cropping and maybe presenting the images differently, like formatting the images into shapes.

However, I think that when it comes to simplicity, I was really good at doing that even though it is something that I need to change. I feel like the simplicity of my picture stories make them quite firm and willing so I have to admit that I am satisfied with that.

Lastly, I should have thought better about my picture stories, I should’ve planned them better and I should’ve made sure that I knew exactly what I was doing and what I was intending to do. Having this certainty, would mean that I would be more confident and maybe even more creative as I would have more time to create a plan of what I really wanted to do, especially in creativity terms.

Experimentation 1, 2,3,4 and 5 of picture story 1 :

1: in this experiment, I layered a bunch of different shapes with a various of shades of blue, thickness and opacity and although I liked the blue, I found it overwhelming therefore started to add different shades and colours. I also didn’t really like how the shaped overlapped the images, so this was rejected. I stuck with the title throughout the whole of the experiment because I really liked it.

2: For this experiment, I stayed with the blue shapes and didn’t change much from the first experiment however decided to add a black shape but immediately disliked it.

3: I started to find what I actually wanted to create with this picture story, in this experiment. I played with different colours like pink and grey and also played with the opacity and thickness. I liked how colourful it was getting and realised that I wanted to make it colourful so I carried on with the experimentation with colours.

4: Now her was where I was really having fun with the colours, I liked the contrast between the feminine colours and masculine colours and the different shapes. However I still did not like how the shapes were overlapping the images so thus was rejected.

5: This was my final product. I had finally figured that the coloured shapes would stay as the background and the pictures would overlap the shapes. I also decided to ass some shading and frames that coordinated with the images to enhance the images and really highlight the title in the mention of ‘aura’

Experimentation of picture story 2 (didn’t really experiment as I just went with the flow and liked the end products so kept it like that)I did however, play with the colours of the outlines of the photo frames. I debated wether the left side should be black and the right side all blue, however my main picture had lost of blue, so I put the larger frame on the left as blue to form a correlation between the image and frames. I also played with the thickness of the title especially the part where is is cursive. I thought the cursive words gave it a ‘Chique’ tone to it:

Experimentation 1 and 2 from the 3rd picture story :

1: with this experimentation, I played with the title in terms of size and font. I really liked the font and the size of it, especially the thickness and as seen on further blog posts, this ends up being my final product. I noticed that lots of my images in this picture story had brown in it so decided that I would put the frames for the image in brown.

2: in this experimentation, I changed the thickness and font of the title to see if it gave it a more rustic look to it however, I did not like the look that the font made the picture story look like. It made it look like really messy and childish, therefore it was rejected.

For my final images I went for Black and White as the main theme. I chose this because of the structures I was taking photos of were mainly old and looked best in black and white.

Decisive Moment

For these pictures I chose to put filters over them and selected the thing that stood out the most in each image (people) and I kept them in colour so there was a nice contrast of dark filters and a pop of colour.

Henri grew up in a wealthy family, he was initially into art with him starting to paint at just five years old. in 1927 he went to a boarding school called the Lhote Academy which was ran by a cubist painter and sculptor called André Lhote. Henri Described André as his teacher of “photography without a camera.”

In 1929 Henri Cartier met Harry Crosby who had an interest in photography and gave him his first camera and they would take photos together, which was the awakening of his photography legacy and gave him an interest in it.

His work

The Decisive Moment

One of the things Henri was famous for was coming up with the concept of the decisive moment, He described it as “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative, oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

In summery Henri is basically saying the decisive moment is the moment in candid photography when the composition is all perfect and you take the photo which can never be naturally re-created again, making it a once in a lifetime photo.

Image Analysis

The photo which Henri Cartier-Bresson took was at the Gare St.Lazare train station in 1932 and captures a man trying to jump over a puddle. The photo uses the rule of thirds, with the man jumping over the puddle being in the last third of the image and the man standing in the background being in the middle third of the image.

The photo is in back and white and contains no colour but there is still good a contrast between black and white, especially in the reflections in the water. Furthermore the Water also gives the bottom half of the image a smooth texture which contrasts with the top of the railings in the background, as the top of the railings look quite sharp and pointy.

There is a bit of shape in the photo. The roofs in the background create a triangular shape which makes the photo more interesting to look at compared to if the roofs were flat. The railings/fences in the photo create diagonal lines which gives the photo a bit more depth. They also help distinguish between the foreground and background of the photo.

Page Spread Planning and Designs

After being introduced to InDesign in class, I played around with the tools to become familiar with the Software and this is what I created. As you can see, I have inserted some random images. These images won’t be the selection that I will use for my final design, I just used them to learn how to add images and move them around.

These are some other layouts which I came up with and, as you can see, I have decided to go for the title ‘Within the Walls’. Another good title would be ‘St Malo through Phone’ as I took these images using my iPhone as it is more distinct, however, I think this title would be informal and doesn’t look as good.

I then added some placeholder text in the areas which I am planning on putting text within my Page Spreads.

I also added the French flag behind one of my layouts by using coloured shapes and sending them to the back.

Another layout option which I tried was to have an image behind the text. I inserted this image like I would any other then moved it to back and lowered the transparency to 24%.

I also added some borders around my images which are the colour of the French flag as it is much more minimal than having it as the entire background. I did this by making the edges of the images have a 3pt border then colouring the borders to be like the French flag.

I designed another layout with some more smaller images, rather than having a clear establishing shot. This will allow me to display more of my images and works better for my images as the majority of them are vertical.

After this, I added images to one of my design layouts, as seen below:

Here is my reasonings for each of the images’ positions:

I also tried this same layout in B&W to see what I think would look best:

I have decided that I am going to keep the images in colour as I believe that it is more pleasing to the eye and St Malo is a very colourful place so it represents it well.

After this, I put an image of a woman eating ice cream behind the text to see how it would look, however, I think that it just looks a bit messy.

Here is another image layout which I have created:

I made this page spread monochrome by exporting it and putting it into Lightroom, rather than using B&W images.

Once again, I think that I prefer in colour as it strips the character from the images when in B&W.

These are the 2 layouts for me to choose between:

I have decided to go for the second layout as I think it is a better way of positioning the text and will allow me to write 2 separate paragraphs on different topics, rather than one big one. One the other hand, there are some images which I don’t think quite fit with the rest, therefore I am going to change them.

I have swapped the image with the church to the one where the man is walking past the 2 ladies sipping their drinks. I prefer this layout much more now compared to how it was before and I think that this image is a better representation of the decisive moment.

I then made another change to my images as I thought the image of the woman eating the ice cream didn’t really fit in so I replaced it with the image of the man cycling and replaced that image with people walking their dogs. I strategically placed these images here as they draw your eyes into the page spread.

This is the text I would like to add to my page spread:

1st text box:

Saint Malo is a historic walled city on the coast of Brittany, France. The city has a long history of piracy and has been home to numerous sailors and explorers. At the end of World War II, it was set on fire and 80% of it had been destroyed. 680 buildings were demolished at this time, including Saint-Vincent Cathedral, which was under reconstruction for 21 years and completed by the beginning of the 1970s. The reconstruction of this city had begun in 1947 and it is now a popular tourist attraction for its coastal location, distinctive architecture, privateer history and more.

2nd text box:

Packed with French culture and history, the walls of Saint Malo offer many experiences such as shopping in unique French shops, eating at tasteful restaurants, exploring the historic attractions and more. The city is also located on the coast and has beautiful beaches which are known for their large tides. Overall, this city is perfect for those who are eager to create new memories, have a love for history and food and want to explore the French culture.

Here are my layouts with text:

I have decided to go for the first text option as I think that it best fits the boxes I have left for text and also matches the title as they are both serif fonts. I have also put made sure that the text was displayed with my most recent layout. Here is my final result:

Using InDesign, I created my picture stories to depict St Malo. I used these pre-sets:

This meant that my pages would be an A3 size with borders at the side. This made it easy for me to ensure my images worked well together and fit suitably on the page. As well as this, I could make sure that the small gaps between each image would be identical so that the picture story would look formal and structured. I began with 3 pages however I could add more by simply just using the pages button and creating more on he document to experiment.

To create my picture stories, I used the rectangle frame tool to create the size of the image I wanted to add:

Then I used the place button in the file section and selected an image:

Once I selected my image, I used the fitting button to make sure that the image fit proportionally inside of the frame, then afterwards I could move around the image to my liking. By doing this, it made sure the entire frame was filled and that as much detail was in it as possible.

After I had filled the page with the all the images that I wanted to include within that picture story, I could then use the rectangular framing tool once again and fill it with text depending on the context of the picture story and images in order to provide more information and detail on what it was about and the contents of the images featured.

MY PICTURE STORIES:

I created 7 different experimental picture stories, some in colour, black and white and with graphic design behind them. These are the picture stories before the writing within the captions in changed from placeholder text to mine. Once I was happy with the layout of each one, I either kept the placeholder text there or wrote some information about my images. In my picture story on ‘The Life Of St Malo’, I used google translate to add in some French words as I felt that it seemed more realistic.

I used my initial picture story as a template to build off of to create these two slightly different images. For the one below, I used the same rectangle frame tool as I did for my photos, however I laid it over the text I had written and filled it with a solid grey, then lowering the opacity to make my writing stand out bolder.

And for this one:

I used the polygon frame tool to create two hexagon shapes and right clicked each to send it behind my work and settled on a monotone colour scheme to make my work look more interesting as everything had been rectangular.

For the background on this one, I used an ombre effect to lighten the title and make it stand out in a bold way, whilst creating a gradient diagonally across the page.

For this background, I used a pastel yellow as yellow and orange tones were frequently shown in practically all of the images, however I didn’t want to make it too saturated as this would have been too bold and could have possibly distracted the viewer from the actual story taking place through the photographs.

For this picture story, I used the rectangle frame tool to create an opaque background of one of the small lanes I found in St Malo. Then, I used the polygon frame tool to depict a story of the heavy rain there was during my time in St Malo by using different images of people in the rain, structures and umbrellas. I chose not to add text onto this one as I felt that the images were able to carry and tell the story itself as well as the title.

Finally, in this picture story I used the same traditional layout for my images and text however, I used the same framing tool to create a red and blue rectangle in order to show the flag of France so my picture story was more cultural to France. Also, this meant that to those who are unaware of what/where St Malo is, this provides a more muted and simplistic explanation.

In my St Malo images, I wanted to try to experiment using the generative fill Ai tool in photoshop. With this, I wanted to try and show peoples impact on these more city-based stills, more specifically the heavy use of graffiti scattered around the town of St Malo and how teenagers may use this to make these areas feel like their own alongside the heavy ‘hustle and bustle’ and fast-paced lifestyle that the city life brings.

Unfortunately, this tool didn’t work effectively within my images as the people generated look unrealistic and out of place, sometimes not generating correctly either. Within this project I won’t be using Ai as I feel that this also takes away from the ideology behind the ‘decisive-moment’ as it adds a sense of falsity and doesn’t contribute to my perception of what I want to explore.

Graffiti:

Busyness within cities:

For this experimentation, I wanted to play around with different formats of presentation for my images, arranging them in different ways to usual:

PORTRAIT:

Original:

This removed any vacant space around the subject, making her the centre and appear closer to the camera.

Process..

LANDSCAPE:

Original:

Process…

PANORAMICS:

Vertical:

The process of each:

Horizontal:

The process of each:

SQUARE CROPPING:

The process:

CIRCLE CROPPING:

The process:

For this format of cropping, I used the elliptical marquee tool to select a circular outline of my image. I then inversed this selection and pressed delete to remove the entire background and keep what I selected. I put this onto a white square for the background so that the colour wouldn’t be disruptive of the image.

Afterwards, I went back into layer style and added a drop shadow, manoeuvring around with the angle, size, distance, and opacity I wanted. By doing so, this meant that the image looks more 3 dimensional and comes to life.

After using the circle crop, I wanted to experiment more with the different ways I could merge images using different cropping techniques.

I chose an image with red in the background to match the red illustrated on the subjects mug.

MULTI-CIRCLE/PORTHOLE CROP:

For this format, I decided to use a combination of 3 – 9 images and lay them onto another image. The process was the same as the circle cropping just more images are added.

Anonymity:

I chose images of people with their back turned away from the camera to create an image filled with anonymity and confidentiality, as if they are hiding away their identities, living in a small city where everybody knows everybody.

I added a slight drop shadow to each image to ensure that they didn’t blend into the background and still stood out to the viewer.

Relationships:

I really like the way that there are 3 images from 3 different perspectives – front, side and behind – because it’s as if the subject are turning slightly within each image. I turned up the saturation of the harbour of St Malo to make it more colourful and contrasting stronger to the black and white cropped images. I chose this for the background as it is a vitally historic aspect of the culture there so I felt that it was important to involve this too.

POLYGON CROPPING:

The process:

To create this, I firstly opened two versions of the same image, one in black and white and one in colour. I then cropped each image to get rid of blank space as this wouldn’t have contributed to the finished outcome of the polygon cropping as I was selecting small, triangular sections of detail to rearrange the structure of this building.

I did this in the same way as my circular cropping, using the inverse button on my selection so that I could pick out specific areas. However, I used the freehand selection tool as this allowed me to choose the height and width freely, while also using different features of the free transform button to stretch and distort the section I had created.

After this, I opened up another document of a black background in order to lay out the desired result, being able to rearrange them to fit into place with one another like a puzzle.

Mood board

History of picture stories

When were picture stories first used?

Picture stories have been around for many years ranging all the way back until 1849 which is when the first picture story was ever created and published in a newspaper. A few years later in the 1850s there was a huge rise for paper photography and that’s where the rise began and since then photography has increased now being one of the most popular things to ever be on the internet.

Photo stories Analysis