Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/04

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Subject: [Leica] Cartier-Bresson Could Be One Weird Dude, Though He Didn't Have To
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Tue Jan 4 12:06:11 2005

Thank you, Buzz of Belmont!

Now - everyone jump on Buzz and I'll just watch for a while... :-)

(And to think, I call Buzz one of my best friends! :-) )



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
buzz.hausner@verizon.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 2:17 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] Cartier-Bresson Could Be One Weird Dude,Though He
Didn't Have To


...well, B.D. did ask me to jump in, and so...

It is a common misconception that surreal means "weird."  Generally,
that idea derives from the fact that most people know of only one
Surrealist, Salvador Dali, who most assuredly painted some weird stuff.

To oversimplify, surreal art, be it painting, poetry, photography,
music, et alii, is "about" a particular manner of approaching the world
without preconceptions of what one will perceive and being able to
express a different reality from that taken in by the ordinary citizen.
Cartier-Bresson definitely considered himself a surrealist first and a
photographer second, with the camera was his medium.  B.D. is quite
correct that Capa told H.C.-B. to call himself a photojournalist rather
than a surrealist photographer because a p.j. would find a much larger
audience for his work than a surrealist would.

That said, Jim, if you've never seen anything weird in Cartier-Bresson's
photographs, it is time to hit the books!  H.C.-B. took and published
some decidedly weird pictures, albeit no melting clocks or flying horses
or portraits of Gala Dali.

Buzz Hausner

> 
> From: Jim Hemenway <Jim@hemenway.com>
> Date: 2005/01/04 Tue PM 01:31:54 EST
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] WAS:  Intro NOW: HCB.
> 
> Calling Sir "Buzz of Belmont"!  :-)
> 
> 
>  > shape, form, shadow, odd juxtaposition of objects.....
> 
> But BD, did you see _incongruous_  juxtaposition when you saw those
> large prints?
> 
> And... there isn't any "weird" in HCB's work... at least none that I 
> can
> remember. I've always thought that any surreal art needs to be a
little 
> bit weird.
> 
> I don't mean the now common usage of the word surreal to mean almost
> anything unexpected and/or different.
> 
> Jim

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In reply to: Message from buzz.hausner at verizon.net (buzz.hausner@verizon.net) ([Leica] Cartier-Bresson Could Be One Weird Dude, Though He Didn't Have To)