Tag Archives: Henri Cartier-Bresson

5.3 – Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (place holder)

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Exercise 5.3
Look again at Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photograph Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare in
Part Three. (If you can get to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London you can see
an original print on permanent display in the Photography Gallery.) Is there a single
element in the image that you could say is the pivotal ‘point’ to which the eye returns
again and again? What information does this ‘point’ contain?
Include a short response to Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare in your learning log. You can
be as imaginative as you like. In order to contextualise your discussion you might
want to include one or two of your own shots, and you may wish to refer to Rinko
Kawauchi’s photograph mentioned above or the Theatres series by Hiroshi Sugimoto
discussed in Part Three. Write about 150–300 words. 

The element of Cartier-Bresson’s photograph Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare to which I continually return is the white space between the man’s legs and his reflection as he jumps.  It is the brightest part of the picture and looks a bit like an arrow pointing in the direction the man is jumping. It is image that is presented as one HC-Bs most iconic images.

 

Martin Dietrich

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Martin Dietrich is a German photographer living and working in Frankfurt

He says of himself:

My work is mostly of a certain abstract, minimalistic and geometrical nature including strong leading lines and shapes. To a large part my work incorporates urban themes such as architecture and street photography. Nevertheless you’ll also find some other things I feel like at the moment. 

source: http://www.martindietrichphotography.de/about-me/ (accessed 26.01.19)

I came across Martin’s work whilst doing research for Assignment 3 – The decisive moment. I have an idea for doing double exposure images for this assignment and was looking up other photographers who have done this.  

This image came up in a page: 10-photographers-creating-enigmatic-works-with-double-exposure.  i particularly liked the monochrome forms and the matt look of the image.

Double Exposure done in Camera (Fuji X-Pro 1) by Martin Dietrich

I particularly connected with Martin’s Street Photography work, which has other examples of this type of image.  Many of his images are very minimalist, and looking down from above at this subjects.  They are mostly high contrast and always have great light.  Many of the images also make use of shadows, which makes me think that he must research his locations in terms of time and light.

Looking at these images, brought back the comment by Henri- Cartier-Bresson in the video, that he always looked for form first, to him Light was just the ‘purfume’.  I am inclined to think, however, that getting the light right, really makes the difference and this is definitely the case in Martin’s work.

 

 

 

 

http://www.martindietrichphotography.de/