Street Photography(III):Henri Cartier-Bresson

       Hi guys! Today I will follow the last article, continuing introducing Henri Cartier Bresson about his photographic styles after WWII.

       Bresson started traveling the whole Europe and taking pictures after deciding to learn photography. However, during WWII, he had been priosined in Germany for three years when he was doing mandatory military service. It was the turning point that he changed his photographic styles.

    

       He tried to emphasize humanistic care in the photos and the independence of photographers. Thus, in 1947, he founded Magnum Photo Agency with some other photographers for these purposes, trying to seize the trend of the world and focus on humanity. After that, Bresson traveled around the globe and recorded many historic events, such as the time before Mahatma Gandhi’s (聖雄甘地) assassinate and his funeral in India, and the period that the government was changed to Communist Party of China from KMT. He recorded poor conditions and burdens on the people under the changeable situations by camera.

                                           

    

       Next week I will introduce his late years and conclude Henri Cartier Bresson’s achievements. It’s a bit long in three articles, but I hope you can enjoy it and know more about this great photographer.

      And if you are interested in Henri Cartier Bresson’s photos and Magnum Photo Agency, you can read this website:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN

Street Photography(II):Henri Cartier-Bresson

Hello guys! Today I’m going to introduce Henri Cartier-Bresson(1908-2004), a very important French photographer in 20th century. He not only left many masterpieces and concepts for taking pictures, but also created photo documentary, a precursor for photojournalism, and the world-famous Magnum Photos(瑪格蘭通訊社). His styles can be divided into three phases, and this week I’d like to share the first phase and his background.

Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika

He was born in a wealthy family near Paris. Learning painting at a young age, Bresson was good at composing and was sensitive to the surroundings when he turned to photography later. Inspired by a photo “Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika”, taken by Hungary photographer martin Munkácsi, he developed a style of “Decisive Moment”, for capturing the most moving scene. As a result, his pictures tell vivid stories and his “Decisive Moment” has an eternal effect on many photographers.

European Square,Paris,1932

Take the photo “Hyères, Paris’’ for example. A person rode a bike passing before the stairs, and Bresson took the shot above. The person’s body blurred due to the speed, and his position on the top left side can be seen as an elongation of the stairs. These factors make the picture a perfection. You may think he was fortunate, however, it was his hardworking and skills that he could catch this moment besides luck!      

Hyères, Paris,1932

Street Photography(I):What's street photography?

Hi guys! For the next few weeks, I will introduce street photography, a type of photography that I’m interested in, and several famous street photographers who use films.

 (a piece of classic photo taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson, a master in street photography) 

  

     It’s hard to define “street photography” precisely, for everybody thinks differently about it and there are too many categories and styles. Some may think it’s just taking photos on the streets, but taking for what? Recording unique events happened on the streets? Passengers’ movements and the emotions through them? Or some objects forms an interesting picture after composing them?

(the shape of air hatch is similar to the internet word "= =", expressing the feelings)

 As for me, they are all parts of street photography, so it’s easier to talk about some of my thoughts about street photography rather than making a definition of it.

 I think street photography gives me a different way to observe the world, such as the interactions between people or humans and the environment. It’s pleasant to find the unusual moments in daily lives and record them!

(the way the lady using the laptop is interesting!)

      (These photos were taken in the U.K.)

About films(lll):Positive Films

Today I’m going to introduce another kind of photographic film, positive films(正片). They are less common than negative films nowadays, however, it was more popular before! Let’s see why it was prevalent but replaced with negative films today.

      Positive films, also called “reversal,” “slide,” or “transparency” film, represents the same color and luminance as the original object and scenery. It can be viewed as a slide by using lightbox and amplifier, and the its beautiful color is far different from the photos taken by negative films or just seeing on the computer screens. Therefore, many professional photographers loved to take pictures by positive films.

      Nevertheless, it needs more accurate exposure than negative films do owing to its less exposure tolerance, it needs higher skills. In addition, it has to be processed for two steps, X-processed (正片負沖) and transparency(反轉),to represent the real color and luminance. It’s more expensive and takes longer time, so as the film photography became more popular, novitiates turned to use negative films, for it’s cheaper and more convenient. Yet there are still many people use positive films for the breathtaking pictures taken by them.

        This week’s photo was still taken in japan, at Kanazawa castle (金澤城). There’s no need to explain for the meaning of it, so just enjoy the scenery! If I really have to say something, I’ll say Kanazawa is a lovely place worth going!       

-If you are interested in processing positive films, please watch this video:

(The first to third photo is pasted from:http://photoblog.hk/wordpress/13052/analogism-%EF%BC%88%E4%B9%9D%EF%BC%89%EF%BC%88%E8%8F%B2%E6%9E%97%E5%85%A5%E9%96%80-%EF%B9%A3%E4%BB%80%E9%BA%BC%E6%98%AF%E6%AD%A3%E7%89%87%EF%BC%9F%EF%BC%89)