Friday, January 16, 2009

Response to "The Impassioned Eye"

A decisive moment captured by Richard Avedon.

I really liked this short film about Henri-Cartier Bresson. He is alive and speaking for himself in the film, albeit with immediate English translations covering up his French. It had nice piano music, occasionally showing the famous photographer bobbing his head along to it. He compared photography to music at one point. It featured Isabelle Huppert (La Pianiste, I Heart Huckabees) talking about his work. She said that she was used to being photographed and that she thought she knew how she usually looked, but when he photographed her, it was fresh and striking and it was as if he took a picture of her true nature. He was close friends with many other famous artists. Although, that usually is the case with famous artists. He was very modest and spoke simply about photography. I dislike being overloaded with technical subject matter. I liked the way he handled his prints with his hands, gently but casually.

The way he takes pictures is very intuitive.

He cares about the framing and structure of objects. It's very basic.

I love his work. There is a lot of whimsy in his photographs.

I could watch this movie again.
I would like to pour over giant books and collections of his work.

1 comment:

jlovell@dvc.edu said...

I love the piano music and how he sways along to it. I love that Avedon shot, too. Nice one.