Henri Cartier-Bresson (A Different Twist)

"I’m not interested in documenting. Documenting is extremely dull and I’m a very bad reporter."

Henri Cartier-Bresson *

Here are some of my recent thoughts on the famous man held by most to be the father of modern photojournalism. 

As one of the four founders of Magnum, the photojournalist world rightfully embrace Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004). His influence in that circle can never be underestimated. That said I think it can be beneficial to see his work and it's connection to the modernists he knew. Hence forth for brevity I will refer to him as HCB.

all images videos etc; property of various owners. Magnum, HCB foundation, Cartier-Bresson, etc
 

 HCB's first book with it's Matisse cover.

It is not that the fine art photo world did not embrace HCB (1908-2004). It's his similarity in commitment to the aesthetics he swam in that makes him much more like Edward Weston (1886-1958), than most would think. Weston (I'm guessing) is a man not generally studied in photojournalism circles. 

Anyone who understands Weston might argue they are in no way similar because Weston used a big slow camera and was considerably more plotting in his approach, while HCB used small fast cameras, was more intuitive in his approach. That is certainly true and their contributions at least on the surface seem quite different but.....

 

Weston 

 

 HCB

Weston and Cartier-Bresson together are like a linchpin into modern photography, much as say Cezanne and Van Gogh would be for painting. Weston and even more so Stieglitz (1864-1946) is generally regarded as the modern prototypical "fine art photographer".

It seems from my perspective many photographers still have no particular knowledge of Mr. Stieglitz's contributions, his wife, painter Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) and the undeniable impact his embracing of modern art had on all most every avenue of photography. 

To note HCB was eventually deeply affected by his associations with some of the very modernists Mr. Stieglitz brought to his Manhattan galleries. At the time Steiglitz showed these artists most people were not open minded enough to digest what they had to offer.

Steiglitz 1907

While Weston was friends with Deigo Rivera, Robinson Jeffers, Henrietta Shore and a big fan of Brancusi, one must remember HCB's association with the artists Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Giacometti and others. 

HCB is an artist first a photographer second. His interest has always been pictures first, media second. Before photography he studied painting and drawing. At the end of his career he tires of making photographs and spends his allotted earth time drawing.

To me it seems his most interesting images are rarely his reportage images, in fact it is fascinating he tells Robert Capa "I am a surrealist" and Capa tells him "say your a photojournalist if you want to make photographs".  I am guessing here Capa means if you need food and shelter you will be better served by calling yourself a journalist. The idea of HCB calling himself a "journalist" is well portrayed in a nytimes/lensblog post (see link at bottom of page).

In fact before he falls for photography, he struggles greatly to find a voice with painting. HCB begins to relate a great deal to the surrealists. At one point in Paris he socialized with them. This is not a crowd your typical photojournalist in the making would break a lot of bread with.

The following quote is from Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work by Peter Galassi  
 

"...The Surrealists recognized in plain photographic fact an essential quality that had been excluded from prior theories of photographic realism. They saw that ordinary photographs, especially when uprooted from their practical functions, contain a wealth of unintended, unpredictable meanings."
 

HCB

"In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject.

HCB

HCB

The little human detail can become a leitmotiv."

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Weston

Brancusi

 Weston

  Matisse about 1914-19

HCB

HCB

Matisse

HCB

Matisse 1908

Matisse about 1912-18

HCB

HCB 

Matisse about 1950-55

HCB

I could be wrong but I'm guessing many photographers just starting out may miss the point that if they are organizing information and or shapes in rectangles failing to study the other 2d arts can be a great loss. Only letting oneself be affected by photography may be short changing oneself. Of course as with all things there are certainly exceptions.

See specific Matisse on right.

Above, two Matisse views of Notre Dame, both are very involved with how to place shapes in rectangles, no matter the content. This does not mean content is absent, only that the image maker has cared deeply if the picture has a strong voice by giving great energy to its graphic structure. Matisse was also a pioneer and explorer of creating new picture spaces.

 HCB

Excellent example of using shapes while still working the magic of the decisive moment.

HCB

By no means do I claim to be a HCB expert. I was always under the impression he never cropped images. I saw a massive HCB exhibition in the late 70s where each print was surrounded by a black edge.

Often at least at this time that was an implication to the viewers you were seeing an image made from an un-cropped negative. One gets this effect from filing out the opening of a negative carrier - creating a black border on the print.

Call me ignorant or uninformed I was shocked upon discovering that the image was severely cropped (see book image below). It is in many ways his most iconic image. Maybe this is newer info, I have not kept up with all the writing on him.

As it turns out in the 1998 film below he explains how he took this image (and what he didn't like about it) offering insight & dismantling the myth. He didn't print his own work but I am quite sure he had very specific instructions for his printer(s). 

Most ambitious photographers (at least in respecting the myth of the un-cropped HCB image aesthetic) would reject such an image from a contact sheet in a millisecond. 

The minute the water molecules are moved by that foot hitting the water the (that) "decisive moment" is no longer available. Well that was the idea associated with a lot of his images. 

Now for me and many others this image has lived in our consciousness for many many years. The moment before a foot connects with a surface has been elevated enough to alert photographers of the interest of things of it's ilk. There is probably no serious photographer "art schooled", "technical schooled", or "journalism schooled" who is not familiar with it.

If one digs around there were certainly forerunners pointing photographers towards such moments, Muybridge and his horse studies in 1872 and so on. Maybe even Degas's paintings. If one studies Degas you will find he utilized photographic knowledge.

Since this HCB image most of us have reformulated and rethought (if only subconsciously) that original idea and we understand there are many decisive moments. 

HCB

My first HCB book I purchased in 1979 or 1980.

 
Found this used in 2010 while photographing in Seattle.

Below is fantastic documentary from 1998 about his life and work.  The film was directed by Patricia Wheatley. 






Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1971 interviewed by Sheila Turner-Seed (NYT-Lens)

Field Notes-1 (2012)

Here are some recent images I am pleased with. Similar style images are found here in Field Notes-2. My thoughts at this time are to include some candid street type moments (which in artistic concerns are on a similar wave length as my largest body of work in incidents & intersections) into my current book which of course means I just signed up for a ton more work. 

 

The book currently involves work from 2005-2010. I am thinking I might be pulling from 2001 to present, not sure yet, but it has become a wide open project. 

I am thrilled to mention, I am going to release some control and get another set of eyes on my greater body of images to see if it can not be a little more holistic in scope of pictures used. I have chosen to work with Mike Davis for his excellent skills as an photo editor, graphic sensibilities and especially because his background is slightly different than mine. All the better to bring new things to the table. 

So I have made my ambitions for my book considerably larger. I am trusting the process and plan to take the revamped one with me to photolucida next April.

some background on my candid work:

Sans a few late 70s NYC street images, I guess some of the first of my street images were made in December of 2001 in NYC at the WTC site. Hopefully the best of those will surface on the blog eventually. To pay for a roof I did candid-journalist wedding photography from 1996-2008, which began to make me attracted to candid moments in general and this eventually got me working on that in my personal work.  I thoroughly enjoyed capturing the energy emotions and movement at those events, trying to move and flow in and out of situations was very challenging and fun. It reminded me of childhood little league and sports in general. The physicality, rhythm and timing needed to be developed were a joy to work on.

Now doing this kind of dance in public is entirely different,in public I am not given "cart blanch-right of way" as I had at weddings. It has taken me a few years to develop some techniques to get interesting images in the public world in a sea of moving people.

It is the same energy and unfolding and collapsing of events in real time that excites me. Finding ways to ebb and flow through an ever changing situation is a blast. It reminds me of younger days when I surfed, because in that sport one moves with and on the surface of a constantly changing form.

My small urban landscape thing is much more akin to snow skiing where the mountain does not move, I move and it stays the same.  Well in fact this analogy is bent. With every movement the photographer or skier makes what is seen or occluded changes quite a bit. On the street with people it is all motion at once, it is fantastic, moving water not frozen.

Strangely enough the rate of successful images seems about the same, even when one setting seems to me an easier situation. Which leads me to believe there are things going on beneath the surface of what I perceive. Taping into this flow no matter the work or approach is a lot of what I am about. As I said before after so many years photographing and living life I feel more like an instrument being played than someone playing an instrument.

Exhibition Review: Intersections: 20 yr. retrospective of photographs by George Elsasser (2of2)

The  following is:
Copyright (c) 2010, The Virginia-Pilot. Reprinted with permission.
The original article appeared in Port Folio Weekly December 7-14 issue, 1997.

From Stark To Lively, Photographer Captures Life
By Catherine Dorsey

Over the past 20 years, the work of photographer George Elsasser has made the progression from stark black and white photos to painterly Polaroids to brilliantly colored and dreamlike abstractions.  Each stage holds it’s own fascination: Elsasser’s multi-faceted talent is evident in a retrospective on view at the Hermitage Foundation Museum in Norfolk.

The earliest photos in black and white demonstrate the beginnings of Elsasser’s exploration of contrast and form over content, a journey which culminates in the artist’s most recent images called the Colorfield series.  The 1980 image Window isolates one section of a steamed-over glass pane.  A few water droplets course through the intricate pattern made by the steam, leaving their snail-trail on the heavily beaded surface.  The patterns in the corner of a stainless steel kitchen sink become the subject for Sink. The interesting curves and reflections of the slick steel, spangled with a textural coating of shimmering water droplets, are focal points while the object becomes secondary.

Elsasser’s images become more complex as they progress chronologically.  Objects arranged in odd and unexpected settings create a surreal atmosphere.  The trompe l’ oeil effect achieved in the 1992 image No Fish is uncanny.  A pot holder shaped like a fish, at first startling in it’s lifelike appearance, rests in the seat of a molded deck chair.  The simple composition sets a complex chain of thoughts in motion by altering our perceptions of reality.  While the photograph is a color image, the delicately tinted fish provides the only color against the stark white plastic chair.  The viewer tends to first perceive the photo as black and white, which it is not, and the fish as real, which it is not.

Three black and white portraits from the early 90’s are quite natural and have a frank quality that is refreshing.  A series of spontaneous manipulated Polaroids retain the surrealism found in several of Elsasser’s larger images.  In Apple, a bright red apple is blurred into wavy lines while it’s reflection in a stainless steel toaster remains crisp and clear.

Intense color and thoughtful composition are hallmarks of Elsasser’s new large-scale Colorfield photographs, which utilize focus rather than light as tools to shape the image to his mind’s eye.  A few sharply focused details emerge from the blurred and often incomprehensible organic subject matter.  The eye struggles to discern individual objects in these brilliant tapestries of color. Two withered stalks of grass and a pine cone stand in stark contrast to the soft green and brown wash of blurred greenery in Colorfield-56. The viewer becomes a voyeur in Colorfield-72.  A stockade-like row of slender tree trunks are in focus in the foreground, while the sunlit landscape beyond flirtatiously eludes the eye.  The golden vista tantalizes by remaining forever just out of reach.

Catherine Dorsey was in the art gallery business for 12 years. She is a native of Norfolk and has a degree in Art History from University of Richmond.

The Colorfield Series is now called Particle Pool. 


Different review of intersections
Information on Particle Pool

Exhibition Review: "Intersections: 20 yr. retrospective of photographs by George Elsasser" (1of2)

The following is:
Copyright (c)2010, The Virginia-Pilot. Reprinted with permission.
The original article appeared in The Daily Break December 7, 1997.

Fresh approach elevates nature photographer’s work
By Teresa Annas,
STAFF WRITER

From 1992 to 1994, roughly, George Elsasser the long time photographer became Elsasser the painter.

It wasn’t exactly action painting he engaged in, but a kind of energetic Art Brut style inspired by directly expressive painters such as Jean Dubuffet, Karel Appel and Willem de Kooning.  He came back to photography as inspired as ever.

In the 20-year retrospective on view at the Hermitage Foundation Museum, that hiatus from shooting provides the line of demarcation between the early work, much of it black-and-white, and his later color work, distinguished by an extremely narrow depth of field.

After his bout with painting, Elsasser immediately shifter to larger prints- canvas-scale, you could say- and began to fill the picture frame with an overall, abstract, rhythmic pattern entirely drawn from a found natural setting.  Woods chiefly.

The pictures are generally close views, haiku-like, of a mindfully composed arrangement of sticks, tree limbs, tree trunks and leaves.The scene may extend far into the distance, yet only a few inches of the scene are in focus.  The rest is fuzzy or distorted. Often, the background shapes and colors break down into discs of semi-transparent color overlapping one another, and reminiscent of Impressionism, at least in the shared sense of tricking the eye into blending rough bits of color.

The challenge for Elsasser, a Virginia Beach commercial photographer by trade, may be considered as: How do you make an artful image, a picture with meaning, that utilizes your well-developed technical skills without looking too slick?

Color photos of nature are as plentiful as pine straw, and many of them are boring.  Since 1994, Elsasser has hit on a fresh way of seeing that emerged from his searching attitude regarding the technical aspects, and his own commitment to losing himself in his subject.

While the late color work is clearly a mature phase, the earlier black-and-white work also showed evidence of an intelligent eye schooled in the history of art photography.  Even his 1977 photos- shot at age 21- are strong.  One is a mysterious black-and-white image that turns out to be a surfboard reflecting nearby woods.

And there are hints of what’s to come.  In 7609-D of 1981, he captured a column of light on a living room wall, above the couch. Like two wide strokes of white gouache, the semi-transparent light strokes quiver on the surface.  Here, the mystical pops in on the mundane, as it would again and again.

There is a second review of the exhibition here.

I have since renamed the Colorfield Series to Particle Pool.

Info on Particle Pool is found here under Gallery-3

Beneath the surface (reading photographs)

new update 7-23-13

I am still learning about blogging and just entered these property words (had no clue I was supposed to do that) for the image.     ......next, cycle, wheel, in-synch, "in step", synchronicity, wheel of life, life cycle,......on so on

I am thrilled this image brings so many words to me, it is a special and very rare image, I would be blessed by the universe to have 10-15 of its strength be made through me in 30 yrs.  Yes, made through me, as an antenna, a vehicle, an instrument being played and so on.

Ralph Gibson has hinted at similar things in recent years, as has Paul Caponigro many moons ago, do any of you guys or gals ever get the feeling something else is helping with your best work?  I am not talking religion here (not my cup of tea), but spirituality, meta physics and the like. You can just tell me to stop with the voodoo, God crap, its all luck.  Now I have always had a bit of a spiritual bent, so maybe I naturally think in that fishing tank. 
 
Older parts of post:

What kind of thoughts I find myself pondering as I study this image:

Does a universal source organize such an event? Who or what made this "image-event"? Would the 2 men have stayed on their personal walking courses had I not been working that day in that particular spot (precise to the inch), not to mention the exact point in linear time? Is there such a thing as a "Metaphysical Vector" or Vectors? All the endless chances for this one event to not occur makes me question who or just what is it that really makes art? Even after 30+ years of picture making I am still mostly baffled.

This image fascinates me. The image is a departure from my primary body of work (smallish urban landscapes emphasizing abstract qualities of light and form), in that people are part of the landscape and the image's success is directly dependent on their inclusion. Although I have long enjoyed Cartier-Bresson's (master of the decisive moment) work, my fine art photography had remained mostly unpopulated by people until about 2005. What stimulated my interest in working in such a manor is my time spent doing journalistic style wedding photography from 1996-2006. This image simply would not exist had I not developed a sense of timing for and interest in capturing people in motion. The stimulus provided by my journalistic style weddings are part of a story called “Paying the bills”.

I hope people who have less experience looking at visual art have looked deeply into this image's picture space and unraveled it's mystery for themselves. If you have not discovered it's magic I certainly encourage a deeper more concentrated look at it much larger (click with cursor) before reading further. My favorite book that helped teach me how to see more deeply was my professor Wally Dreyer's 102 text book choice “Looking at Photographs” by John Szarkowski. I cannot recommend it enough for people interested in developing deeper visual skills and much greater joy looking at their visual world.

A more concentrated look into the image will reveal a more transcendent image which should stimulate people's thoughts as to how such things happen. For me this type of image makes me ponder just who or what gets credit for such images? Where do the images come from? How do such things happen or do they even happen if one was not present to witness or record such? I will try to open a discussion of that matter in an entry called "synchronicity and photography” at a latter date.

For now I will point out the crucial stuff some viewers may have missed and wait for my poet/painter friend Karl Watson's commentary on this and two other images. Within the cycle wheel there are two men, one younger and one older walking in opposite directions. To me the sign or symbol in the image (the cycle wheel) should point, lead or remind people of their knowledge if only faint of the wheel or cycle of life. The recognition of a common symbol (the circle) is certainly not a stretch for most trained people but also easily revealed to others who have learned how to observe things more slowly and deeply. There is no big mystique here, no hard to understand art words, just the simple practice of patient observation and the knowledge you are not looking at an image designed to impart a single simplistic message. Lastly, both men's posture, the bending of their legs and the angle of their shoes are virtually identical. There are more visual coincidences occurring in this image I will leave for you to discover.

Like spirituality, viewing and creating art for me involves looking more deeply and beyond surfaces. This is completely unlike the looking and quick analyzing of things in our fast paced world, it is much more akin to meditation where one strives to clear one's mind of all the unnecessary mental chatter the mind provides. Think of the mental state desired being similar to the sports term “being in the zone”. Not only athletes but also artists and musicians work to employ such a mental state on their journeys as well. People who get strong fulfillment from visual art employ knowingly or unknowingly a similar mental state when they do their looking.

Two other images where the Gods of photography or synchronicity pulls it altogether for the image maker.

I sensed a good composition with some strong triangular energy, moved to a camera position I thought might work and clicked.  The key here is I sensed, moved, photographed. That has to be done thousands and thousands of times to make great images. I have been trained, I trained, and continue to train (by studying images often, making images often), but....

It is hard to take credit for the amount of synchronicity that organizes a photograph way more complex, involving, resolving and fascinating than I could possibly fully anticipate and comprehend before or as I click a shutter button.  In next or prior 1/500 of a second, or my body in a different position not to mention camera positions all the beautiful math that makes this image work collapses like a particle in a collision. Our minds and eyes make composites of details and make all sorts of chemical and mental short hand before we see what we think we see before us. How many triangles are in the image, which ones hold it together which ones are icing, how does the picture work, think about it study it and you have begun to learn a great joy

you will not for get it is like riding a bike once you train yours eyes and mind they will always stay visually enlightened.  If when trying to enjoy an image and it seems hard quiet the mind be present.

A good photograph can be enjoyed like a good page in a novel by a favorite author, where you might re-read certain parts or sections because they sing or resonate so well for you. This is how one begins to learn how to look at images, you read them - all the parts, you do not skip sentences. If parts of that page or section of a book connect for you, you reread them then because you know you won't find the page later, or will not have time.  Two more images on a similar wavelength.

The Road and the Sky (Magic & Fear or Photo 101)

6x9" selenium toned gelatin silver print, 1980    

First and foremost thanks for taking the time to visit my blog shutter; if you are attracted to visual images or a creator of such, hopefully you will find it interesting. Where do I begin with such a thing as this? Well I will start with the image that changed my life as I had known it till then, Photo 101 Old Dominion University. Camera images had planted tiny seeds prior to this but nothing had really sprouted until the fall of 1977.

I titled this image “The Road and the Sky,” a song title used intentionally from Jackson Browne's album “Late for the Sky.” It was more homage than anything else. I was completely blown away at that time with that (still extraordinary) album. Quick critical overview of the LP here.  Bruce Springsteen inducts Jackson Browne into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and specifically mentions this album as a major influence)  here.

This whole music thing has got me thinking briefly about how hard some people are on an artist's long term output, such as "this album they made can't hold a candle to such and such" ,Sargent Pepper, Dark Side of the Moon, The Planets, Ninth Symphony, Mona Lisa...............you get the idea.  That is insane and unfair nobody hits em out of the park every-time at bat but one must swing the bat to maybe get to 1st.

Anyway back on track.

The image itself was created just a few rolls/proof sheets into my new journey. I was quickly becoming bored with the usual stuff fledgling photographers photograph in photo 101 class. This was long before I had seen work from Edward Weston, Minor White, Harry Callahan, Ansel Adams or Paul Caponigro (heroes I would in a year or so study) and even before I had much understanding of f-stops, shutter speeds, let alone depth of field.

It was just an idea and a knowledge that with lining up the two pointers in my used Olympus's viewfinder an image could be born; even if the birth was defective something should show up on the film. Back then for me it was still all voodoo, smelly chemicals in dark room's, a wing, a prayer, a Hail-Mary pass in the last seconds of a game I was lucidly dreaming.

So the idea was; “If I photograph this long wide surfboard with a stripe down the middle in b&w can I make it resemble a road or a least for a few moments fool viewers into thinking they are seeing a road?” So I placed my camera (like a 4 wheeled thing) near the fin close to the surface of the board and studied and adjusted it till all seemed right. As Ken Daley the director of Old Dominion University Art department told me many many years later, what interested him most about photography was its ability to lie.

I was printing on some recently created (plastic) stuff called RC paper, which I along with some would later refer to as bath mat. Although I knew just about nothing at this stage of the game it was already starting to bother me that the chemicals were getting splashed from one tray to another by students in a hurry to get to some more important task, to me time stood still – the task at hand was holy! Oh my God; what my fellow students did with the print tongs, in the stop bath, back to the developer, all over the room, the sacrilege was rampant. The people did not respect the alchemy they played with.

As I watched the image come up in the developer I was rewarded with an idea manifest in the material world that was all mine. It wasn't mine like the drawings and paintings I made during childhood and the various art courses I could never say no to, but for the first time all mine like no other image I had made. After years of trying to deny my artistic inclinations knowing I would never survive such a financially bereft life, the muse set up permanent residence in my heart. I imagine now, her saying to me, “I myself do not care about money, I can give you treasures of joy unimagined that money will never buy.”

I was so fortunate to be graced early by the Gods of Photography (and their camera named Olympus, LOL) with an inspiring image that I at one point became worried a new camera I might one day afford might not have such magical powers!  I am serious about this, that picture for me had enormous power.  Enchanted and entranced I was.

I was 21 and magical thinking had not left me yet.  Many have and had favorite bats, guitars, gloves and so on, I was not unlike others.  Once.

All that seems to go out the window as the years roll by and one realizes how hard one has to work and how hard it is to make a great image, the handful in my long journey have become like talismans.  Yes for me there is still much mystery that pushes me to explore something I know is there that I do not understand. 

back on track-

I never before knew photography had such power or could do such a thing; I only knew of the pretty advertisements in magazines and when photography was used to provide simple documentation of things. I was lodged on the hook. With this image I wasn't gonna be anything I wasn't, I was only gonna be me even if I still had to “costume up” for life to make a dollar. From this image on I knew what I wanted! I wanted to simply make images from my heart with no thought of commerce whatsoever and do it full time. Now at least, I understood my time on earth was meaningful, it had real purpose.

Finally I was very fortunate to have received an award of merit by Robert Heinecken (though at the time I was unaware of his work or fame) in a national student show for this very same image. This was a thrill, especially to know someone important in my first real career had found my piece provocative. I finally got an “attaboy” for something that was me, not a hand shake - pat on the back for forcing my self through some task I loathed or at something that held no flame for me. This recognition certainly was the icing on the cake and sealed the deal.

For those that are still with me thanks for hanging on and sharing part of my journey. The fine art photographers and teachers that inspired me early on showed me the way and provided a foundation through their visual journeys so I and others could begin extended further journeys. 

My photo 101 professor David E. Johnson's work

My photo 102 professor Wally Dreyer's work

My photo 103 professor Phil Morrison teachs at CNU
and presently has no work online


my early work 
scroll down to Gallery-6 EXACAVATION