Talk:Henri Cartier-Bresson

Later Years Dates Muddled

The following dates are out of order, and repeats itself WRT drawing/painting and portraiture/landscapes: "In 1968, he began to turn away from photography and return to his passion for drawing and painting. Cartier-Bresson withdrew as a principal of Magnum (which still distributed his photographs) in 1966 to concentrate on portraiture and landscapes. In 1967, he was divorced from his first wife, Ratna "Elie"." Lopifalko (talk) 09:47, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Death date

There is still some confusion about the date of HCB's death. Most sources say he died on Monday, August 2, but some (American) sources claim he died on Tuesday morning. All sources concur that he was buried on Wednesday. - Karl Stas 22:26, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The Telegraph obituary (not American) says August 3. - Nunh-huh 02:51, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I checked the French press. Le Monde and Le Figaro say he died on Monday, Libération says Tuesday! - Karl Stas 08:15, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Until it is resolved then, it isn't appropriate to report a certain date. "Died 2 or 3 August 2004" may be the best we can do. - Nunh-huh 08:34, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The contradicting media reports are based on two press releases, one by the French Ministry of Culture and another by Magnum Photos. The former puts the time of death on Monday, the latter on Tuesday morning. It is not entirely clear which version is endorsed by the family. The original text of the press releases is nowhere to be found. Le Monde refers to "sources close to the family". BBC first reported that HCB died on Monday, but now they only say he died "weeks short of his 96th birthday". - Karl Stas 10:14, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Le Monde has changed the date to August 3. Unfortunately, the web site of the HCB Foundation is unreachable and his bio on the Magnum site doesn't mention his death yet. Meanwhile, User:Simonides and User:194.51.20.124 have changed the date in the article, apparently without reading the talk page first. - Karl Stas 08:13, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

And it is not clear where he died: Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (Vaucluse) or in his house in Céreste. --Maha 13:02, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I think we can now decide in favour of August 3 (time) and Céreste (place). - Karl Stas 16:59, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

For the record. I heard he was dead on August 4. Ericd 19:49, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

No, he was buried that day. - Karl Stas 09:54, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

All the sources that I came across said "early morning Tuesday" ie 3 August, which may have been 2 August in America depending on the exact time (which I'm not aware of); since it was, apparently, Tuesday in France, we should retain 3 August until we have some evidence to the contrary. -- Simonides 05:29, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

At first, BBC and most French media said he died on Monday (local time). But the Magnum press release puts the time of death at Tuesday, 9:30am (local time). - Karl Stas 09:54, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Telephoto landscapes?

The current revision of the introductory paragraphs contains the following statement (emphasis added): Cartier-Bresson exclusively used Leica 35 mm rangefinder cameras equipped with normal 50mm lenses or occasionally a telephoto for landscapes. It strikes me as slightly unusual that he would have used a telephoto lens for landscapes. The conventional wisdom is that landscapes are best captured with normal or wide-angle lenses (of course, the conventional wisdom may very well be wrong). Is HCB's use of telephoto lenses a documented fact? MarkSweep 05:52, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Telephoto lenses can be used for landscape photography, but I don't know if HCB did this. A web search reveals the sentence was taken from Photo-Seminars.com. - Karl Stas 13:35, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Apologies for saving in the wrong language, instead of my own minority language. I was about to fix it when I found, to my pleasant surprise, it was already done. Thanks for your patience.Meabhar 21:00, 24 Sept, 2004 (UTC).

Copyright

Oops, very sorry, I have been so busy making edits to other articles that I missed the talk page on this. I'm also a Wikipedia (contributor) newbie. Again, my apologies, did not mean at all to ignore. I added the images previously but wasn't sure if they were fair use or not at the time. Speedoflight, October 2, 2005

All photos in this article are copyrighted! I think they should be removed, or is this considered "fair use"? - Karl Stas 09:32, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

• I've already marked the Magnum images {{ifd}}, but Speedoflight has not responded in any way. It's a shame -- Speedoflight is making great improvements to this article, but needs to pay some attention to talk pages. The images are explicitly NOT fair use. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 22:52, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

try contacting the foundation henri cartier-bresson who adminstrates his estate. they also have a good amount of photos of him (even on the top page). the prez of the foundation is the photographer who took the famous foto of him (the one you're using on top with the mirror) if im not mistaken. - would be good to confirm and credit her Martine Franck --Bine maya 06:47, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

• I cannot find any proof that the book, "The Decisive Moment" is not in the Public Domain in the U.S., as a renewal of the book is not listed the US Copyright Office, Public Catalog (1978 to present), nor in a reliable database of Class A U.S. Copyright renewals (book) renewal registrations for works published between 1923 and 1963. These renewals were received by the US Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 --Zeamays 18:18, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Leica hype

I find modern autofocus cameras boring. I like to use manuals cameras and I definitely find rangefinders easier to use in alvailable light... But I'm getting bored by all this contributions by Leica fanatics.... Until the seventies Zeiss lenses where definitely superior... HCB favorite lens was a Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f/1.5 in Contax mount with a Leica adapter (now a very rare and expansive accessory). Both photos HCB that illustrate the article are showing a Contax lens mounted on a Leica with an adapter, probably the Sonnar. Ericd 00:06, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Leica M eventually? M1 or 2? -- max rspct leave a message 03:09, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

During his life he used various cameras I think he used mostly a M3. Ericd 08:48, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Brownie Camera Reference

To: 12.217.192.63 Hi: You removed a statement in the Henri Cartier Bresson page concerning the Brownie camera and pointed to a reference. Can you please a post a citation (footnote and reference note) to the exact journal, author, date, page, etc. Thanks. --speedoflight | talk to me 06:19, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Private life references from Martine Franck entry

i'm a great fan of HCB, but the gap between the tone of this article and that of Martine Franck his fellow-magnum photographer, wife and legacy administrator is (was!!) too striking not to notice the gender bias:he's a genius. she's his second wife. i've reivised her entry now but it was mostly about HIM (even grammatically) and about her wife- and motherhood --Bine maya 06:45, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Developing his own film?

The article is inconsistent about whether Cartier-Bresson developed his own film. The section "The middle years" states that he and his wife lived in "a large studio with a small bedroom and kitchen and a bathroom where Henri once developed his films." However, the section "Technique" states "He never developed or made his own prints." So ... how to reconcile these statements? -- Docether 18:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Link to probable copyvio

In this pair of edits, the reader is pointed to http://www.e-photobooks.com/cartier-bresson/decisive-moment.html.

Neither having nor wanting the requisite plug in, I can't view that. But that site's top page tells people that the site offers:

<h2>The Decisive Moment by Cartier-Bresson</h2> / <p>The complete book of The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson online in a Flash Image Story, showing all 126 images. The Decisive Moment is generally considered the most important photo book of the last century.

The Decisive Moment was, I believe, copyrighted by HCB, who died in 2004. That would mean it's copyright till at least 2054 in most of the world.

I'm therefore removing the link. If I've misunderstood, persuade me. -- Hoary 10:11, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Daughter adopted?

There seems to be a discrepancy between this page and Martine Franck's as to whether their daughter was adopted, and when. Mooveeguy 16:11, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Hcb.jpg

Image:Hcb.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 04:45, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Henri Cartier-Bresson - no image manipulation???

There has been much said about HCB's images having no darkroom manipulation or cropping. The cropping part is probably right but his images >>have<< been manipulated "to get everything in the negative onto the print." I have seen several of his exhibits in Paris and some of the prints showed signs blatant burning/dodging.

For a printed example, see the photo of the women of Kashmir on the mountain top in the book "The Family of Man" pp. 156-157. The sky is heavily burned in, the woman on right obviously dodged.

For one, I never understood his stance on this issue and as a fervent HCB admirer it has bothered me no end. He employed the best darkroom technicians to bring out the genius of his work - it would have been sufficient to say - as Minor White has done - for technical detail: the camera was faithfully employed.

Leterrible358 (talk) 03:39, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Subjects

In light of the (potential) length of the section and WP:EMBED, it might be a good idea to split the "Notable subjects" into a dedicated list page. 86.41.91.196 (talk) 13:43, 17 April 2010 (UTC)