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| Henri Cartier-Bresson |
The old man above is my all-time favorite photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson. He’s a French photojournalist who made his name taking news photographs throughout the 30’s and 40’s. What makes him and his work special is the fact that he was among the first to elevate photojournalism (and arguably Photography in general) from mere documentation to a serious art.
I believe a big reason behind this was the fact that he initially studied to become a painter. I could go on a good couple pages about him, but this post is supposed to be an explanation of the blog’s unusual title, and not an autobiography of M. Cartier-Bresson. I'll save that for another post. I got the title from something he said about photography. For him “It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis.” Personally, I think that about sums it up. You can have great lighting, but not so great composition, or maybe vice-versa. Maybe you nailed both but, for some reason, the picture just doesn’t make you think or make you feel anything. A great photograph lines up all three: your head or your intellect, your eye or your aesthetic sense and your heart; your emotion. All of these three things come together at the moment the film or image sensor is exposed to light, usually just a fraction of a second. If I could, I would take nothing else that does not fall under this category. The hope is that as I continue to take pictures and share them online, then maybe I'll get there or at lest very very near.
I believe a big reason behind this was the fact that he initially studied to become a painter. I could go on a good couple pages about him, but this post is supposed to be an explanation of the blog’s unusual title, and not an autobiography of M. Cartier-Bresson. I'll save that for another post. I got the title from something he said about photography. For him “It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis.” Personally, I think that about sums it up. You can have great lighting, but not so great composition, or maybe vice-versa. Maybe you nailed both but, for some reason, the picture just doesn’t make you think or make you feel anything. A great photograph lines up all three: your head or your intellect, your eye or your aesthetic sense and your heart; your emotion. All of these three things come together at the moment the film or image sensor is exposed to light, usually just a fraction of a second. If I could, I would take nothing else that does not fall under this category. The hope is that as I continue to take pictures and share them online, then maybe I'll get there or at lest very very near.
And that is how I came up with the title of this blog.
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