Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practising?
Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in August 1908 and is a famous French photographer. In 1930, Bresson began to enter the photography creation industry. In 1931, he began to travel around the world and published works in newspapers and magazines. Bresson loves the Leica 135 paraxial camera, which uses 50mm and 35mm focal length lenses. He believes in decisive moments and thinks photography is an accident thing. Although he refused to admit it, he was called the pioneer of photojournalism.
What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)
https://pro.magnumphotos.com/Asset/-2S5RYDYVCGNE.html
This photo is not named, for the time being, it is described as “The Great Leap Forward” A unit going to work in the fields. Commune of Shiu Shin (310.000 inhabitants living in 280 villages divided into 7 Popular Communes spread over 600 square kilometres).
With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?
This photo was taken in 1958 in Shiu Shin, China.
Although I am not entirely sure about the equipment that took this picture, however, according to the information I obtained after investigating a lot of data, Bresson’s shooting habits were probably using Leica’s camera and 50mm lens. Also, due to technical limitations at the time, the film could only print out black and white tones, which became Bresson’s characteristics. When using an analogue film camera to take a photo, first the shutter will open for a moment so that the light can enter the inside of the camera and the reflection is imaged on the film, which is a photosensitive plastic (Wood Ford, 2018).
How was the photo or video authored?
From 1948 to 1949, Bresson was sent to China by The Life magazine to film the final appearance of the Republic of China under the Kuomintang. After 1949, after Mao’s communism ruled China, this land became a mysterious place for Western society. So Bresson was once again sent to China to find out what the nation really looks like. Bresson has pursued the theory of decisive moments throughout his life. He feels that his photos can never be prepared and planned like the filming, and carefully arranged a beautiful moment. So in this particular moment in China in 1958, he accidentally recorded many historical moments. Besides, Bresson is also very disgusted with his photos cropped, trimmed, modified or retouched in reproduction.
Bresson is very particular about geometric composition in photography, and this photo is no exception. The horizon and the queue in the distance divide the picture into three pictures, making the composition very simple and refreshing. The location of the horizon is about one-third of the screen, using the three-point composition method. Besides, Bresson also used the guideline composition method. The crowd extended from the foreground to the distance to form a guideline, which was very intuitive to show the audience the extraordinary scenes of the People’s Commune and the Great Leap Forward.
How was the photo or video published?
First of all, these photo works of Bresson are very typical Printed Media. At that time, this photo, like most of his works, was produced using Gelatin Silver Print technology. Regarding the concept of analogue photography, analogue is considered a process in which a set of physical attributes can be stored in another “similar” tangible form. Then the latter is technically and culturally encoded so that the original qualities can be re-presented to the audience as they are. When redeveloping the film, the entire process must be meticulous, because a little carelessness will allow dust to stain the film, which will affect the quality of the photo. Then place it in the magnifier and expose it on the photo paper, then put it in the developer tray, rinser and fuser. The final step before completion requires constant precision testing and reprinting. The film developed later will be fixed in the air with nails or clips to dry like clothes.
Since there is not enough information to prove, I am not sure whether this photo was published in the American magazine “Life”. But this is one of the main goals sent to China, so there is a high probability that magazines have published this series of photos. Therefore, it can be assumed that it is sold to the American public through newsstands and subscription mail.
How was the photo or video distributed?
Although not sure whether this photo was published in Life magazine, according to a large amount of information and Bresson’s life records, there is a very high probability that it has been released. And this set of photos is also the primary purpose of his second assignment to China, and his hard work. Once these photos are published by Life magazine, as a very famous American magazine, his distribute audience is the American people first. Although the picture is also suspected of having been published on the international edition, the primary audience is also Western society and the people of European countries. Later, with the continuous development of technology, these pictures will be published on popular picture websites, so that they were once distributed to netizens around the world. At the same time, the two China Banks 1948 and 1958 were included in the album by Micheal Frizot and sold in the form of hard copy on Amazon and other international online shopping sites. Internet users around the world have the right to buy and collect. In this way, this picture was distributed more widely again 20 years after Bresson’s death.
Reference list
Analogous, 2017, Henri Cartier-Bresson – The Decisive Moment, video, Vimeo, Germany, viewed on 10th April 2020
The Guardian 2020, Henri Cartier-Bresson: China breaking free of its past – in pictures, the Guardian, viewed 10th April 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/jan/09/henri-cartier-bresson-china-breaking-free-of-its-past-in-pictures
Woodford, C 2018, Film Cameras and 35mm Photography, Explain That Stuff, viewed 10th April 2020,<https://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-film-cameras-work.html>