Blog Post – Week 5

Week 5 – Analogue Photography

Henri Cartier-Bresson – Madrid, 1933

Who is the practitioner and when were they practicing?

The practitioner in this example is Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), a French photographer active roughly from 1932 to 1968. With a background in painting, Cartier-Bresson considered himself a surrealist artist more so than the photojournalist he was often labelled, focussing more on the composition and aesthetic value of his works rather than the political and historical recording that they so elegantly provide.

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse?

The photo in this example was taken in Madrid in 1933, and is labelled by Cartier-Bresson’s foundation Magnum Photos as “A Group of People in Front of a Wall with Small Windows”.

https://www.magnumphotos.com/par46659/

With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced?

This photo was taken in 1933.

How was the photo or video authored?

This photo was taken on a Leica 35mm film camera on black and white film. The small form factor of the Leica cameras allowed for more flexibility in spontaneity and framing compared to other common cameras at the time (with Cartier-Bresson having started using a Leica in 1932). The photo is a brilliant example of Cartier-Bresson’s influence from the art world, particularly to do with cubism and surrealism. The high contrast of the photo creates a natural progression from the heads of the children in the foreground to the patchwork of tiny windows on the building in the background, with Huxley Parlour remarking that the photo shows Cartier-Bresson using “geometry to create structure from which order could be derived amidst the chaos of life.”

How was the photo or video published?

This photo, having been taken well before even the invention of the first digital computer, was printed using analogue processes from a 35mm film negative, with one of the oldest prints owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York being a gelatine silver print. Since then, many other copies of the photograph have been made for galleries across the world, and in the 21st century, high quality scans are also available online.

How was the photo or video distributed?

The photo was originally distributed in exhibitions and photobooks, with the photo likely having appeared in his first exhibition in the Julien Levy gallery in 1933, showing off many other photos taken around Europe. Since then, it has been printed in various books and shown in hundreds of modern photography exhibits, going as far back as the mid-1950s. With the advent of the internet, online distribution is also now viable, with the photo easily accessible and able to be licensed from Magnum Photography.

References:

The Museum of Modern Art. 2020. Henri Cartier-Bresson. Madrid. 1933 | Moma. [online] Available at: <https://www.moma.org/collection/works/49901?artist_id=1000&locale=en&page=1&sov_referrer=artist>

Huxley-Parlour Gallery. 2020. Equilibrium And Geometry: Henri Cartier-Bresson In Madrid | Huxley-Parlour Gallery. [online] Available at: <https://huxleyparlour.com/equilibrium-and-geometry-henri-cartier-bresson-in-madrid/>.

Magnum Photos. 2020. Henri Cartier-Bresson • Photographer Profile • Magnum Photos. [online] Available at: <https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/henri-cartier-bresson/>.

Magnumphotos.com. 2020. Henri Cartier-Bresson A Group Of People In Front Of A Wall Filled With Small Windows. Madrid, Spain. 1933.| Magnum Photos. [online] Available at: <https://www.magnumphotos.com/par46659/> [Accessed 1 May 2020].