I have
been studying Henri Catier Bresson's work for some time among others. Which brings me to a new
acquisition Published by Thames and Hudson about Cartier Bresson. It has been a joy to read and
is a pocket sized which accounts for it doing a lot of travelling with me being
read at those odd times when I'm having coffee, waiting for an appointment or
in a quite moments snatched between jobs. It is a thin volume that has surprisingly taken quite a time to finish
– which is a good thing as it is one of
those books I will be sad to see the back of.
It was not
until recently that I noticed that all this reading about Henri and his
methods, has influenced the way I have taken a number of pictures. All be it at
a subconscious level. It is true to say HBC was a bit of a snapper, an
opportunist when taking a number of his most well known pictures. His method in
a number of cases was to wait at a location that interested him pictorially and
watch life unfold in front of it. Some favorites that illustrate this are: The stairway down to the street
with the cyclist rushing by and the man jumping the puddle.
The picture
of the lady walking her dogs along the sea front is a Bresson inspired image
although at the time I did not realize this. My intention was to take an empty
picture depicting the lamp post and line of the wall for a project that has
been coming together over the years as an odd shot here and there. I was about
to take the picture when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a
group were about to walk into shot or
what I thought were people only to be present in the view finder as dogs. The
next thing I know I had taken the shot with that little voice in your head
saying that's a better shot. Having printed the picture it is not as good as
when I took it. The day is depicted a lot duller than I remember but I do
recall how brass monkey the weather was.
Do you find
this happening to you when you have been reading about other photographers?
