Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]ted grant wrote: > > Jem wrote: > > <<<Henri Cartier Bresson used this technique a lot. That guy jumping across > a puddle, he fell in 50 times before HCB reckoned he'd got 6 frames of him > exactly at the right point.>> > SNIP Is there anyone out there who can absolutely confirm he asked this "model" to reenact the jump 50 times? If the truth is he did, I almost don't want to know as he becomes just like the rest of us instead of the brilliant "Decisive Moment" photographer we admire for his quickness of trigger finger. Ted, Danger! Danger! Jem was making a sarcastic response to one of our LUG members who described his technique for using zone system on 35 roll film. The sarcasm being that this zone approach is absurd if it were applied to one of the greatest images of our time, particularly if it were on 35mm film. In fact, when you see what the neg looks like (as in the Photo Techniques retrospective on HCB)you realize how impractical and absurd zone really is since the neg is really poorly exposed. But who cares? That's what the darkroom (photoshop?) is for. So don't worry. Especially since HCB was not a zone system freak. On the other hand, if you have a chance to see a book about his early work published by the Museum of Modern Art in relation to a retrospective show, you'll see that he did make several exposures or work a scenario until he achieved its full potential. The two examples are the fat man walking past the windowed wall with the kids playing in foreground and the one at the bullring where the guy is looking through a gate with the light reflecting off his glasses lens and someone going through a door in the background. What amazes me about the latter is that either HCB is invisible (rumored) or so unobtrusive that the subject was oblivious to being photographed. Relax. The legend continues. Carl S.