The Decisive Moment

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I’ve always been a huge fan of Henri Cartier-Bresson and I’ve been trying to get my hands on a copy of “The Decisive Moment” for some time. Unfortunately, it’s quite rare and extremely expensive – more than I wanted to pay. So, I was very pleased to discover that the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation had re-printed it:

The Decisive Moment (Images à la Sauvette in French) is one of the greatest photography books ever published. It brings together photographic material from the first twenty years of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s career.

Images à la Sauvette was published in 1952 by Verve, with an original cover by Matisse. It was the result of a collaboration between the photographer, the famous art critic and publisher Tériade, and the painter, at the peak of his career. The American version, published the same year by Simon and Schuster, was the first to introduce the now-famous expression “decisive moment”.

The book, which reveals the intrinsic duality of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work, the combination of intimate interpretation with documentary observation, received tremendous critical acclaim within the art world and is considered a “bible for photographers”, in the words of photographer Robert Capa. It remains an essential reference for photographers to this day.

The original book, now out of print, has become a collector’s item. The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson sought to make this classic photography book accessible again, in a smaller and practical format, at an affordable price. The latest print features the same material as the original 1952 edition and is accompanied by a comprehensive study of the book’s making, its enduring popularity and the considerations behind its title, written by Clément Chéroux, Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Most of the book is taken up by Cartier-Bresson’s wonderful photographs. These are preceded by a short (14 page) introduction written by Cartier-Bresson where he presents his views on photography. I’m sure that when the book was published this was absolutely fascinating, but I’ve read a lot about and by Cartier-Bresson, so it didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know.

To me the most interesting part of the book (other than the photographs, many of which I had not seen before) was Clément Chéroux’s piece: “A Bible for Photographers” described above.

The book is much smaller than the original, nor is the printing apparently as excellent (or so I’ve read somewhere) as in the original. Despite this I’m glad that I bought it.

A Walk to Crawbuckie Preserve and Back – A Bookstore

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By this time my feet were really bothering me. Luckily my favorite local bookstore was within easy walking distance, and I could sit comfortably in an armchair or a sofa and read for a while until my feet had recovered enough for me to continue on home.

It’s called Hudson Valley Books for Humanity, and I’ve posted about it before (See: A Walk through Ossining – A Bookstore).

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Needless to say, I ended up buying a photography book: Jacques Henri Lartigue. The Invention of an Artist. This is a small, local bookstore and it doesn’t have a large collection of photography-related books. I had just watched a YouTube video where Lartigue was mentioned. At the time I remember thinking that I didn’t have any books on Lartigue and that I should get one. Coincidentally, I unexpectedly bumped into this one. This is the second time this has happened to me with this bookstore.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.

Photography: Essays and Images

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The back cover of the book provides the following, which describes the book better than I possibly could:

This handsomely illustrated volume presents a fascinating pictorial and literary experience, bringing to life through their own words – and photographs – the scientists, artists, philosophers, innovators and entrepreneurs who in the last century (Note: the book was published in 1980) and a half have formulated a new art and a new era of communication.

Beaumont Newhall calls this book “an autobiography of the art of photography, written by some of the men and women who by their inventive genius, their scientific skill, and their artistic sensibility have forged a technique into a vital visual medium. We have allowed them to speak to us directly, without condensing, excerpting, or otherwise editing their words, so the volume may be both an authentic source book for students of the history of photography as an art and a narrative for the general reader”.

Mr. Newhall has chosen 190 photographs to illustrate the reports, criticism, and points of view expressed by the writers of the “autobiography,” many from the photographic archive of the Museum of Modern Art, others from collections throughout the world. He also provides brief introductory comments to place each selection in historical context. Photographs and text are carefully integrated.

The selections in this volume include first-person accounts of the inventions of the basic photographic techniques; newspaper reports of the discovery of the daguerreotype and of early photographic exhibitions; criticism by Baudelaire, Léger, Moholy-Nagy; personal statements from Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand, Lange, Adams, Weston, Evans and others. This basic source material, presented at length and accompanied by relevant photographs, provides a rich background for the chronological history of the medium so masterfully presented by Mr. Newhall in his classic work, The History of Photography.

To give a better sense of the scope of the work I’ve scanned the table of contents (see below)

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Fine Art Street Photography by Rupert Vandervell

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I’ve been a subscriber to Rupert Vandervell‘s channel: New Ways of Seeing for quite some time and have enjoyed it greatly. I like his delivery, and I like his videos, which are relatively short and not overproduced.

So, when I bumped into his book “Fine Art Street Photography” I decided to get hold of a copy.

How did I like it?

I’d like to start with a few small comments and one rather large criticism.

First the comments:

  1. I don’t care for this use of the words “fine art” in the title. I’ve noted this before (See: Fine Art Photography) so I won’t go into it again here. If you’re interested, please read the post.
  2. The title suggests that this type of high contrast image is the only type of street photography that deserves the name “Fine Art”. I doubt that Joel Meyrowitz, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston (to name but a few) would agree with this. In fact, the book is largely concerned with the type of street photography that Mr. Vandervell favors. In his introduction he is quite up front about this. Just don’t think that this is going to be a broad overview of the various types of fine art photography because it isn’t
  3. A better title might be “Fine Art Street Photography – my way”. Seen that way it’s an interesting book sprinkled with useful insights and interesting anecdotes. Mr. Vandervell writes well and it’s an easy read.
  4. If you’re looking for a “how to” book this is not it. But then Mr. Vandervell at no point claims that it is.

And now for the criticism:

As reviewers have pointed out the quality of reproduction of the images is truly terrible. If you watch any of his videos you will see that they are very contrasty with very dark blacks and very bright whites. In the book they’re all a very mushy grey. This is a pity because his images rely a lot on high contrast and in this book, you don’t get it. On top of this many of the photographs have faint lines (from scanning? from printing?) running through them. I’d suggest avoiding the book and instead taking a look at his YouTube channel. The photographs look much better, and it costs less. The images in this book simply do not do justice to Mr. Vandervell’s work.

For a broader overview of different types of street photography, I’d suggest taking a look at “The Street Photographers Manual” by David Gibson with a Foreword by Matt Stuart.

Gettysburg. A Journey in time

by Posted in History, Reading Leave a comment
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The Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society where I volunteer is located in the same building as the Briarcliff Manor Public Library. Occasionally the library has to dispose of books. When that happens anything that seems to relate to history comes our way first in case we’re interested (which we often are). This fascinating book came along recently. It’s perfect for someone (like me) who’s interests combine history (particularly military history, and even more particularly the US Civil War with photography)

Its title is Gettysburg. Journey in Time and it’s by William Frassanito. He was educated at Gettysburg College and did his graduate work in American cultural history in the Cooperstown Graduate program. While at Gettysburg College, he was a guide for three years at the Gettysburg National Park. He served with the U.S. Army in both Germany and Vietnam, and in Vietnam, where he won the Bronze Star, he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as an intelligence analyst.

In his conclusion Frassanito writes:

For more than a hundred years, the Gettysburg photographs have remained in a confused and neglected state. Their value as historical documents was realized well before the turn of the century, but their value as historical source materials was basically left untapped. A large number of the views were arbitrarily attributed to the famous Mathew Brady; captions and dates were vague and often incorrect; significant relationships between scenes went unnoticed; and although the views appeared time and time again in monumental works such as Miller’s ten-volume Photographic History of the Civil War, for all practical purposes no one thought to question the credits or the captions, or otherwise thought to treat the Gettysburg photographs as a distinct series.

By identifying the confusion that has existed, and by substituting order for that confusion, I have attempted to demonstrate what can be done – and indeed, what must be done – with historical photographs if they are ever to be accurately employed by students of the past.
The value of the early photograph is manifold. It is a unique document rich in information. It provides a dimension to the study of history available nowhere else. Moments in time have been captured and preserved, and it is for us today to be aware of the fact that unless such images are gathered, researched, organized and used to the fullest, we will be doing ourselves, as well as the photographers who recorded them, a great injustice. The loss, however, will mainly be ours.

Warning: some of the posts below depict dead soldiers on the battlefield, which may be disturbing for some.

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The Gateway to Evergreen Cemetery, July 7, 1863. O’Sullivan.

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The Thompson House, Lee’s headquarters during the battle of Gettysburg. Brady, July 15, 1863.

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Scene looking northward toward Cemetery Hill from the crest of Little Round Top. Brady, July 15, 1863.

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Confederate dead at the edge of the Rose Woods, O’Sullivan, July 5, 1863.

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Dead Confederate soldier, Gardner, July 6, 1863.

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Dead Confederate soldier at sharpshooter’s position in Devil’s Den. O’Sullivan, July 6, 1863.