Omnibus: Henri Cartier-Bresson Current mood: depressed Category: Art and Photography
Today at college in our visual culture lesson we looked at a documentary that celebrated the work of photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. Born in France in 1908 he was renowned for his action photography. One of the most famous of his pictures being "Man Leaping Over A Puddle".
There's a certain symmetry to the picture in that on a wall to the left there is a poster of a circus performer that mirrors the leaping man. Also the man at the railings is also symmetrical with the foreground image as is the reflection in the pool of the broken barrel staves.
It was what Bresson described as The Decisive Moment. Even publishing a book of his work with this title featuring a cover painted by the artist Henri Matisse a lifelong friend. Bresson always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and his work takes in a wide range of subjects taking in the Spanish Civil War and uprisings in Communist China.
With some friends including Robert Capa and David " Chim" Seymour he set up The Magnum Agency. His was a work he referred to as reportage. He was reporting through his photography what he was seeing through his lens. In effect capturing a moment in time. He was also a keen artist and it seemed he would have preferred to work in this field describing the difference between this and photography as like action to meditation. He likened himself to Renoir in his documentary style and said without his bad temper there wouldn't be his photography. We also saw posed photographs of Francis Bacon and Truman Capote from which he said he enjoyed seeing the silence within a person.
All in all it was an enjoyable documentary about the life of a great photographer though I'm not sure that the choice of music by his favourite composer Bach may have outstayed its welcome!