MS Research - Henri Cartier-Bresson

Biography

Born: August 22nd 1908

Died: August 3rd 204(Aged 95)

Nationality: French

Occupation: Photographer, Painter

Bresson came from a wealthy family in France. His dad was strict with him and wanted Bresson to inherit the business. Henri didn't want this, but rather wanted his own path. As a child he owned a small 3x4 camera known as a Box brownie, which he experimented with regularly. Later in life he tried to become a musician during his early life, however failing this he was introduced to oil painting by his uncle. After the death of his uncle he turned to a Private Art school where he studied classic art forms. This was when he first came up with his idea of modernising classic art.

He later went through service in world war 2, where he survived and escaped from it all too africa, and had an affair. He returned to france later in life and found that he had a greater respect for surreal art work. This was the time he decided to change from oil paintings, and perfect his art of photography, using the hardships of his own life as inspirations for some of the messages behind his work.

Examples of his work

His work uses a rather vintage styling to it and is all black and white (due to that being all they had whilst he was working). This gives all his pieces an old-timey feel to it.

First Example

This photograph shows destruction and poverty. The focus of the image seems to be the state of the children and how their homes are ravaged and desolate. What I found interesting was the different levels appearing from within the holes area, the kids seem smaller and smaller the further it goes making it seem that they are completely insignificant.

My own Piece

This was my piece based upon his photography style.

This was the photograph that I chose to use for this piece.

I chose this photograph as it was a good example of the how nothing in the photograph notices the camera. The car drives along the road without noticing. I also felt this was a good choice as there is multiple examples of using Leading Lines. For example the curb of the road is leading towards the car, you could also say the hedgerow itself is a line as the top of the row leads towards the car.

At the moment, I felt that although that the image carried the message, it didn't really fit the 'Vintage' look of one of Bresson's photographs. I decided to desaturate the image and play around with the levels.

After playing with the levels, I ended up making the image itself a lot brighter, I thought that this was a good as it looked more like one of Bresson's pieces. It gains the vintage look, but also that pure white effect that some of his other pieces include. I felt that I missed the ideas of Bresson's work with this piece, it seemed like it was a lost opportunity, which is why I went on to create a new piece with a different image for the base.

With this image, I had the idea that the camera wasn't there as the people have no attention towards the camera. This made it seem interesting as Cartier-Bresson's pieces were also taken without attention towards the camera. My next step was to make it better suit the old vintage styling of Cartier-Bresson.

After cropping, desaturating and levelling the image, this was the result. I believe that this piece does a much better job at capturing the idea of Bresson's work. It has 'hidden camera' feel, and also It captures that vintage look the Bresson had with his pieces.