Photoshop Creative

When I leave Paris for my home in Montreuil-Bellay, it is mainly like a sense of vacation... but it can also be a case of nostalgia. Among other things, most of my early photographs and those of my fathers are kept there (not enough space in our Paris apartment, there is a kind of museum of old cameras - my father's 35mm rangefinder foca from the fifties, my first twin lens 6x6 from 1958 are my preferred). But I must say that looking at some of my photography magazines from 1968 to 1974 is really making me plunge into the past. I am now in a very small room which used to be my darkroom and which has been rebuilt into a reading room with computer. I am now reading the May 1974 issue of Popular Photography. There is an astounding interview from HCB (Henry Cartier-Bresson). Just to give you an idea, here is a citation:
'The greatest joy for me is geometry, that means a structure. You can't go shooting for structures, for shapes, for patterns and all this, but it's a sensual pleasure, an intellectual pleasure at the same time to have everything in the right place. It's a recognition of an order which is in front of you.
And finally, for me - that's strictly my way of feeling - I enjoy shooting a picture. Being present. It's a way of saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!"...'

I can think of few better to quote.

He was a master - vraiment. Several of his images are still counted as my all time favorites. Especially the little boy in Paris with two bottles of wine.

Rusty

One for Michel.......
Which photographer made this picture...?

My bet would be Eugène Atget ?

Quite right Michel........ he made some wonderful pictures around Paris and they all seem to 'connect' with me.... I'm sure I was a Parisian in a past life! His pictures look very simple to us, but he made an attempt to capture the 'ordinary' scenes - things which we may ignore now but it shows the importance in recording the ordinary even in the modern age. Today's dull picture of people at a shopping centre will be a work of social importance in 50 years.

Mitchel, HCB was, is and will be my favorite photographer.
His sensitivity and instinct leaves me speechless.

geoff_chalcraft wrote: Quite right Michel........ he made some wonderful pictures around Paris and they all seem to 'connect' with me.... I'm sure I was a Parisian in a past life! His pictures look very simple to us, but he made an attempt to capture the 'ordinary' scenes - things which we may ignore now but it shows the importance in recording the ordinary even in the modern age. Today's dull picture of people at a shopping centre will be a work of social importance in 50 years.

Geoff,
Eugène Atget was the first to come to mind. I did a search but could not find this particular photograph. What is amazing with him is that his urban landscapes have no people in them, but they really seem inhabited, those walls have a soul!
Just like you, I find it is very important to shoot people in their context. With digital, many spend a lot of time erasing interesting backgrounds; at least backgrounds which will have a lot of meaning in 50 years.

Don,
This interview showed several photographs taken recently in the Soviet Union. Masterpieces! He had a very quick mind and I could have quoted many other brillant parts of the interview.

Michel, I saw on TV not to log ago a documentary on him that was mind blowing for it showed images I never saw before on any of his books. There has been many great photographers thrhghout the ages but HCB was the Genius of the lens the man had an incredible eye for the un-usal withing the usual.