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Cartier Bresson video interview
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Jon Anderson’s link to the Online Photographer blog (which I had not seen before) brought me to this fascinating interview with Henri Cartier Bresson here
A one hour interview with the great man (plus Richard Avedon thrown in for good measure!)
What a waste of a very special opportunity. Charlie Rose’s interviewing technique is very “Fox News” and seemed like he’d read up on HCB the night before. The sound quality is awful, so it’s often difficult to catch the answers to many of the very dimwitted questions that Rose throws at THE MAN. The standard stuff.”you don’t crop your pictures bla ba bla…….Whilst talking of Gandhi , HCB says “ I had all this stuff in my back pocket” ,Rose chimes in “money!” to which the reply is “ no, FILM”
Great!!!
The interview is full of similar uninformed errors. David Seymour becomes “David Chim” at one point!
In his lifetime most people had not even seen a picture of HCB, so to get a whole hour of video is quite astounding .OK, so some younger guys may now think of Bresson as a photography dinosaur, it was still fascinating to get a glimpse of somebody who showed me what beautiful photography can be like. Pity Gene Smith didn’t live longer too!
I have very vague memories of a series of tv interviews with photographer’s ,William Klein etc, talking about contact sheets ( remember them?) which was very well done . Magnum in Motion is doing something along those lines. Yes, photographers tell most about themselves in the pictures they take, but it can interesting to get behind the person sometimes.
A glimpse of the cheaky Frenchman only comes out at the end when , relieved that he is free again, Henri gulps down some red wine and fools around with the empty glass for the still running video camera.
Now a historical document, it’s a pity that it is so awful.
by
Tony Stringer
at
Wed Feb 28 12:23:27 UTC 2007
(ed. Jul 2 2008)
Vicenza,,
Italy
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There is also a recent movie about HCB, “The Impassioned Eye: Henri Cartier Bresson (2006)”, available on DVD.
And other documentaries, including one by Sarah Moon; “Henri Cartier-Bresson Point d’interrogation”, produced in 1994.
I met the ol’ guy once, he was quite rude….
cheers,
jsh
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When I get to be 90, I plan to be quite rude also!
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Probably not as rude as he was to Ansel Adams. One time in Arles someone tried to introduce the two of them and Cartier Bresson just said ” “Oh, I don’t want to meet a postcard photographer” !!!!!!!. Thanks for the info on the other docs, Jeremy. I’ll check them out.
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Yeah that was one painfully embarrassing interview. Rose is truly obtuse. He is a classic Jamesian example of American callowness. Poor HCB is just barely able to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. But as the Online Photographer points out there are some gems in there. What a wasted opportunity. by the way, Avedon doesnt come off sounding any better. Pure drivel.
Video Link
To make a link, just put quotes around the linking terms, adjoin a colon and then the URL all without any spacing.
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Okay… I’ve tried Tony’s link to Stumbleupon.com. so that I too could watch the HCB interview with C.Rose and… nada. ( I also wanna rubberneck). Am I missing anything? ; (
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Click on the words Video Link on Jon Anderson’s posting above.
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Tony: Thanks but still… Zilch. ?
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the video link in my post takes you right to the video. cannot understand the problem you are having JF. Dont know why but when people just post the URLs, only part of that coding functions as a link so you cannot just click on it, you have to cut andpaste. So if you follow the formatting tips given just above the Reply field where you post your replies, you will see that an easier way to post links is simply, as I stated above, write the link words youwish to appear (video link for example as in my post) surround those words with quote marks (” “), place a colon right after the second quote mark ( then paste in the URL ( ) and that will create a link. YOu have to put the http or you wont exit the LS website.
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Thanks Tony… No problem. Watched 15 minutes and got bored. I’m still trying to figure out why HCB is such an icon. He’s taken many great photos, but I don’t see what makes him such a photographic icon I think it’s a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Maybe I’m wrong… What am I missing?
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PS. I think I’m gonna get slammed… LMAO
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Gotcha Jon!
Why JF? That’s just what i expected! The post was about how crap the interview was( amazed you got through fifteen minutes of it).
HCB is history.Like he says “I don’t think I’m a photographer, I just had a camera and used it” It just so happens that he started using it first and beautifully so.
I don’t think Magnum would even let him join today, but he sure as hell made an impression on me.
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Tony, I don’t deny he used his Leica well, but I also think that there are many other talented photographers. My question is: why is HE so iconic? I’m not denying his place in the world of photography, but why is he “da man”? I went to the ICP exhibit. I thought it was great… but I saw a lot of snapshots – nothing worth the accolade. I’m just interested in why people think he’s so brilliant. There are perhaps 3 or 4 pics of his that I think are spectacular. Tony, I’m just curious.
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JF, Maybe HCB was a very different visionary at his point in photo history. Of course he might seem a bit boring but only because so many copied his look and embellished on it that the original force gets diminished. Just a thought. G.
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HCB’s photos make sense to me in many levels, and that from way back when I was beginning to look at photographs with the eyes of a budding photographer. I think he became an icon because so many photographers past, present, and future had the same experience as I had with his work, learned as I did from it. His influence is such that it’s taking plenty of effort for me to wean myself from it and to develop a manner of making photographs that I could call mine. I’m moving on to put myself under the spell of many other photographers from various eras including the present, some of them (non-lurker) members of this community.
Of course every photographer has their own set of icons, and HCB does not necessarily belong in it notwithstanding his status.
I saw the ICP exhibit too. I’ve seen all those photos before and had read all about his methods, the back-stories and all, so I was more bored than excited, which I would definitely be if this time were 1994. The only new thing that I picked up from that interview of him shown at the ICP was his admission of being a surrealist, and that the “photojournalist” title he used was just to get jobs. A photojournalist would find work, while a surrealist won’t, HCB, in sum, said.
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