[Leica] Best known photo ?

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

Very briefly -

The photo flag raising photo was not of a staged event - it was of the
raising of a larger flag. Staged implies that it was set up for the
purpose of being photographed; it was not.

I would never describe HCB as a photojournalist - and I would never say
that the photo of the boy with the bottle had anything to do with
photojournalism.

I would suggest that not only is the decisive moment not about
journalism, it is also not about capturing the essence of someone - the
decisive moment, I would argue, is that instant when it occurs to the
photographer that there are photographic possibilities in the scene he
or she is observing. Were that not the case, we would have no way to
explain the fact that HCB was a prodigious shooter who worked a scene to
death - and from his contacts then selected an image. ;-)

B. D.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Peter Dzwig
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 2:58 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Best known photo ?


BD,

with the utmost respect, I think that you missed my point.

B. D. Colen wrote:
> The Iwo photo was NOT faked - go do some reading. There were TWO flag 
> raisings; the second, which Rosenthal shot, was the second - the idea 
> was to raise a flag large enough to be seen all over the island. This 
> particular "faked photo" story was laid to rest several years ago.

My recollection of the story is that the Rosenthal photo was presented
to the 
world as the actual first hoisting, even though it was *actually* the
second 
time that the flag had been raised.
But, be that as it may, I was asking what makes "photojournalism" -
whatever 
that is [ I see a lot of stuff called photojournalism which has
virtually no 
journalistic content in it]? Does something have to be "real" or can a 
re-enactment such as the Iwo Jima photo stand as journalism? The Adams
photo or 
the Ut photo, which shocked a generation were of an instant and
certainly 
contain "news" and could not have been re-enacted.
Note that this is NOT the same question as whether or not it was faked
(eg the 
discussion about the Capa photo); it is a very different question
indeed.

Perhaps I should have been less cryptic.

> 
> And the fact that there were other people shooting with 35 doesn't 
> mean that Capa isn't the one who created the form, in the sense of 
> making it work, and bringing it to world attention. Keep in mind that 
> HCB always said that he was NOT a photojournalist. In fact, at the 
> time Magnum was formed, Capa specifically advised HCB to call himself 
> a photojournalism because, he told HCB, no one would buy photos from 
> him if he described himself as a surrealist photographer - which was 
> what he really was, and thought of himself as.

I agree if you like that Capa "created the brand", but there were people
engaged 
in taking photographs to illustrate, or simply to tell, news stories,
for a long 
time before he camre on the scene.

FWIW I personally don't think of HCB as a photojournalist, he is a
photographer 
(largely of people) who has an unerring - and possibly unique - ability
to 
capture the flavour of someone, somewhere or something. Often he
encapsulates 
all three at once. Perhaps he is closer in some senses to a
photoethnographer. 
Think of the photographs of pre-war Poland, of Mexico, Spain, Russia,
the US, 
and of course of Paris; think also of the portraits spanning fifty years
or so.

The last two photos mentioned in the first part of this response are
examples of 
"moments decisifs" and "moment decisif" is a phrase that will forever be

associated with HCB. But HCB demonstrates that the moment decisif is
about more 
than news, it is about capturing some kind of spirit of the photographic
subject 
and I would humbly submit that that is what we all admire in him.

To take a specific example, the boy carrying the bottle of wine in the
rue 
Mouffetard, or similarly the kids in Palermo bowling a hoop. It tells us
a lot 
about the child, his pride, the kids around him and Paris in '52. That
is much 
more than journalism and would better, IMHO, grace the pages of National

Geographic or a travel book about Paris.

I very much doubt that Capa was unaware of this and, as you rightly
point out, 
realised that by eliding the meaning of "moment decisif" and
"journalism" HCB 
could represent himself as a "photojournalist" which was something that
would 
selling. Now we buy - if we can afford it - HCB's pictures for their 
photographic uniqueness without the need to rely on other labels,
however 
necessary they may have been at the time.

Peter Dzwig


_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information