spontaneous candids, photojournalism, the photo essay

and the zine

street photographystreet photography

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-BressonHenri Cartier-Bresson– B.1908 D. 2004– French photojournalist– renowned for his countless

memorable images of 20th-century individuals and events

– his works are remarkable for their flawless composition

– photography was a booming profession in the1930s - many photographers worked for the magazines and the press

– considered the father of modern photojournalism

Henri Cartier-BressonHenri Cartier-Bresson– never crops his pictures– He believes that the subject

cannot be separated from the composition.

– For him, the picture emerges from the process of finding the right way to frame the subject. Everything within the frame helps him tell his story. At the moment he snaps the shutter, the whole picture comes together; he calls this “the decisive moment.”

Henri Cartier-BressonHenri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-BressonHenri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-BressonHenri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-BressonHenri Cartier-Bresson

the Decisive Momentthe Decisive Moment– the Decisive Moment was one of

Henri Cartier Bresson’s Photo books, first published in France in 1952

– originally Images à la Sauvette, which roughly translates to “images on the run”

– the photo book consisted of 126 plates of Bresson’s photographs from around the world from the East to the West, around Asia, his native France, and to the US

– Decisive Moment really does capture, unveils and sums up Bresson’s revolutionary approach to photographs

the Decisive Momentthe Decisive Moment– in the preface of the book Bresson tells us that: "To

me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms that give that event its proper expression.” And throughout the book we see these fleeting images, moments in time captured in the blink of an eye, or the camera’s shutter…

ANSWER/DISCUSSION:1. What is the relationship between a photograph and the

subject it represents? Does a photograph simply copy the world? Is it always accurate, or truthful? Can photographs lie? Can photographs reveal the feelings of the photographer?

2. Is this type of photography a work of art? What makes a photograph a work of art? If it hangs in a museum, does that make it art? Can a photograph express the feelings of the photographer? How can photographers express emotion by depicting the world that already exists? How does a photographer change and manipulate what he or she sees?

• creating a story using pictures - the Photo Essay is one of the most important developments of 20th Century photography

• the Photo Essay can be described as: a group of photographs, usually with supplementary text, that conveys a unified story and is published as a book or as a feature in a magazine or newspaper. To create a photo essay we use candid photography, documentary photography and photojournalism.

the photo essaythe photo essay

1. using candid, street and spontaneous photography create a story

2. tell a story of a stranger or yourself3. create a photo essay feature using ten

(10) images and text (approximately two sentences to a paragraph per image)

4. design a cover 5. think about style and tone – are you

looking for an underground feel? A commercial art feel? A fine art feel? Is it more of a gallery piece or a coffee house piece?

6. << create a photo-essay7. FORMATS:

• MyPublisher• WalMart printed book• Photo album made at school

your story…your story…