Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/08

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Cartier-Bresson Chafes Over Photographs of His Well-Guarded Face
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 13:17:34 -0500
References: <200102080801.AAA20831@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> <3A82B284.27E4FAE4@uni.edu>

Indeed, this is the high point of the HCB article in the NYT -


          Ms. Franck responded, "Someone came at him with a flash."

          Mr. Cartier-Bresson added, "A flash is like rape."

But a detached reading of the entire article leaves one with a portrait
of HCB as either more than a bit senile, or, if one assumes he has
always been like this, a raging egotist who clearly deserves what he
gets in the way of being photographed.

That said, however, and I preface this next comment by noting that while
I am a great admirer of HCB's body of work I don't think much of most of
the portraits in his recent book of portraits, my guess is that his
dismisal of the DDD book of portraits is right on the mark. [Please
forgive the construction of such a long, convoluted sentence]

I don't care how good anyone is, are all 37 shots on a roll ever worth
of publication, unless we're talking about a motor-driven roll of
something like the JFK assasination in progress? And DDD's assinine
comments about what the photos reveal of HCB...come on.

These two prima donas deserve each other.

B. D.

In reply to: Message from Matt Kollasch <matthew.kollasch@uni.edu> ([Leica] Cartier-Bresson Chafes Over Photographs of His Well-Guarded Face)