Week 5

Classic Street Photographers

Andre Kertesz

Andre Kertesz

• 1920’s-1980’s• Hungarian• Seminal figure of

photojournalism • Prior to HCB• Photo-essay• Composition

Quotes

• “Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph”

• “I just walk around, observing the subject from various angles until the picture elements arrange themselves into a composition that pleases my eye”

• “Mr. Kertesz was known for his drive and enthusiasm. At 90, he produced a portfolio of new pictures and showed it to the photographer Susan May Tell. When she asked him what it was that kept him working, he replied, "I am still hungry.”- written in his obiturary

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson

• 1920’s-1970’s• Grandfather of street

photography• Geometry• Lines• “The Decisive

Moment”• Focal length: 50mm

Quotes• “The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to

capture a minute part of reality.”• “Think about the photo before and after, never during. The

secret is to take your time. You musn’t go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick.”

• “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.”

• “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

What inspired HCB to start shooting

• "Muncacci's picture made me suddenly realized that photography could reach eternity through the moment."

Martin Munkacsi: 'Black boys ashore Lake Tanganyika' (1931)

Robert Doisneau

Robert Doisneau

•1930’s-1950’s•Paris (with HCB)•Influences:• HCB• Andre Kertesz•Style:• Modest• Playful• Amusing juxtapositions•Flanuer•Shy

Quotes

• "The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street."

• “Chance is the one thing you can't buy. You have to pay for it and you have to pay for it with your life, spending a lot of time, you pay for it with time, not the wasting of time but the spending of time.”

Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt

• 1930’s-1960’s• NYC • Influences:– HCB– Walker Evans

• Style:– Children– Street culture– Chalk drawings

Quotes

• “Since I’m inarticulate, I express myself with images.”

• “I looked at paintings for composition”• “I go where there’s a lot of activity”

Robert Frank

Robert Frank

• Born in Switzerland, did his 1958 book titled “The Americans”

• Skeptical outside view to American society

• America by car

Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier

• 1950’s-1960’s• Nanny• Born in New York,

grew up in France• Shot around 40

years in Chicago• Discovered by

John Maloof

Alfred Eisenstaedt

Alfred Eisenstaedt

• 1930’s-1970’s• German-American• LIFE Photographer• Famous for “V-J

Day” Kiss