Brassaï

**The Art of Photography: A Conversation with Henri Cartier-Bresson**

In this episode of The Public Broadcast, we're going to explore the art of photography through the lens of one of the greatest photographers of all time, Henri Cartier-Bresson. With a career spanning over seven decades, Cartier-Bresson is widely regarded as the father of street photography and his work continues to inspire and influence photographers around the world.

**Shooting in the Dark**

One of the key aspects of Cartier-Bresson's approach to photography was his ability to use available light to create compelling compositions. "You have to find ways that using what light does exist to define the composition," he said. This approach is evident in many of his photographs, where the limited amount of light is used to create high contrast and emphasize the subject. For example, in one of our examples, a streetlight at the bottom of the frame provides just enough illumination to define the shape and form of the surrounding environment.

**Form, Line, and Texture**

Cartier-Bresson was also fascinated by the study of form, line, and texture in his photographs. "The most beautiful work is often the simplest," he believed. This approach can be seen in many of his photographs, where a simple street gutter becomes a powerful symbol of urban life. Another example shows a street scene illuminated only by fog or rain, creating an otherworldly atmosphere that draws the viewer's eye to the basic forms of the composition.

**Atmosphere and Mood**

Cartier-Bresson was also skilled at capturing atmosphere and mood in his photographs. By shooting during foggy or rainy conditions, he could create a sense of drama and tension that added depth to his compositions. For example, one of our examples shows a bridge and a street performer under a dark and foreboding sky, creating an ominous atmosphere that draws the viewer's eye into the scene.

**The Power of High Contrast**

High contrast was another hallmark of Cartier-Bresson's approach to photography. By using available light to create stark contrasts between light and dark areas, he could emphasize the subject and draw attention to its most striking features. This technique is evident in many of his photographs, where a couple embracing on a park bench is rendered in high contrast against the darker background.

**Street Photography and Performance**

Cartier-Bresson was also known for his street photography, which often focused on capturing moments of performance or activity in public spaces. One example shows a woman standing in the shadow of a train, creating an intriguing silhouette that draws attention to her presence. Another example depicts two people working on a train, with the woman standing in the foreground and the man working behind her, highlighting the contrast between their positions.

**The Art of Storytelling**

For Cartier-Bresson, photography was not just about capturing images, but also about telling stories through his photographs. "You have to create that sense," he said. This approach is evident in many of his photographs, where a simple scene becomes a powerful narrative when viewed through the lens of Cartier-Bresson's unique perspective.

**A Legacy of Photography**

Henri Cartier-Bresson's legacy as one of the greatest photographers of all time continues to inspire and influence photographers around the world. His approach to photography, which emphasizes the use of available light, the study of form, line, and texture, and the creation of atmosphere and mood, has been widely adopted by photographers today.

**Books and Podcasts**

If you want to learn more about Cartier-Bresson's work and see more examples of his photographs, we recommend checking out one of our favorite books on photography. Additionally, if you're interested in exploring more conversations with photographers and artists, be sure to check out The Art of Photography podcast, which can be found at thepublicbroadcast.com.

**Getting Involved**

Finally, don't forget to follow us on Twitter to stay up-to-date on our latest episodes and behind-the-scenes insights into the world of photography. We also have a dedicated page for The Public Broadcast's podcasts, where you can find links to all of our episodes and show notes.

**Conclusion**

And that's it for today's episode of The Art of Photography. We hope you've enjoyed this conversation with Henri Cartier-Bresson and learned something new about the art of photography. Thanks for watching!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enjoin us now on Flickr at flickr.com groups slart of Photography hey everybody my name is Ted Forbes welcome back once again to another episode of The Art of Photography today we are talking about a um commonly known as a French photographer even though he was born in Transylvania G named brasai who was born Uli Halas um and he was a Transylvanian citizen who did a lot of traveling around Europe uh was actually did a lot of work as a journalist and took pictures and eventually ended up submitting some of his photos to go along with journal entries in various Publications uh generally to make a little bit more money on things uh but today he's known as you know uh this wonderful photographer who kind of created this whole well didn't create but but captured this whole world of Paris at night um not just Paris he did a lot of night work in general um we're going to be looking at this book which is called Paris By Night and there really are a lot of bruss side books that you can find uh they all kind of contain the same things uh this is just one I happen to happen in like uh but anyway let's have a look and see what he's all about okay so we're going to look at some photos by brasai and uh this is a pretty easy book to find uh it's just Paris by night um you can find there's a ton of books that uh are published um brze works and most of them are these night shots which are what he was known for and what's you know you got to kind of consider by today's standard some of these shots uh may seem kind of a little bit uh lackluster in a way um but what you have to remember is at the time uh that he was photographing these in the 30s that film emotions glass plate emulsions they were nowhere near as high uh in terms of sensitivity as what we have today with film or digital cameras these are slow films they required long shutter speeds uh uh you know um again this high contrast shooting at night was not an easy proposition uh at this time uh this is a really wonderful shot of just cobblestones on the street uh in Paris and what's interesting about brasai is there really what he uncovered in these photos was really a whole another world that or was a new way of looking at things but it was a it was a world that that people didn't normally associate with photography at that time because of you know night shooting being as difficult as it was and you can see that a lot of these images are not perfect they're grainy they're gritty uh but there's really an interesting um you know element to a lot of these this obviously being the Arc of Triumph and There's A Train That's pass in in front of here that you can just barely see and so you know a technique that Bai kind of was known for using uh most often was you know you're shooting in the dark but how do you use the very little available light there is to create the form the shape the definition of the composition this one on the left uh you know basically you have some Street lighting down here at the bottom but that's it a lot of grain up here so these are all very high contrast photos same with this one on the on the right where you basically get a hint of this sculpture down here on the lower left these are hard to shoot shooting a video too just because they are so dark uh but again uh you know just shooting in the dark and then I think what brasai was doing was trying to find ways that using what light did exist to define the composition um you know just absolutely beautiful stuff uh notredam here um you can see the uh the streets that align it basically that's the only light that you have in this probably even a cloudy night which would give you a little bit of reflection uh but beautiful work uh these cars coming down probably sh Le or something like that I'm not sure about that uh street light photos again uh let's see again this is uh really one of my favorites this was the cover shot on here but uh besid use of form of line this is just a street gutter that's defined but uh and there's not much to this other than being just a wonderful um study of shape of line of texture things like that uh you a lot of his shots were done too and here's another trick for shooting at night uh is actually shooting when you have either fog or just previously rained or even shooting in the rain you can get you know atmosphere that way but what happens is when the ground's wet you do get more reflection off of concrete stone than you normally do so obviously this was probably taken either in the fog or after a rainstorm uh you know again adding to that sense of drama I love this with the bridge and barely you know much like what we were talking about with with Shen's work um reducing a composition just with high contrast lighting to just the basic forms that that the viewer needs to understand in looking at the work um this is one of my favorite uh that Bai has taken um this is sorry I'm move stuff around here um basically you're looking at some kind of performance uh you can see the definition of the light reflecting off of the audience uh again very dark very gloomy and what's interesting is we don't see what's going on on the stage and again this is a extremely interesting spin on what's you know typically done with photography especially like this where you are turning the audience into the focal point of interest and it's almost a moot point of what could be going on the stage you have this grow being lifted up by people it's obviously part of something going on but we don't know what that is uh and you're actually forcing the viewer to kind of question or wonder or you know kind of create that sense um again here's kind of some circus tents that are lit anyway really wonderful work um these park bench shots and these are kind of some of the more famous ones uh this couple that are making out on a bench here and you know being able to capture that and and again I think this is repres resentative of you know we think of Paris being a city for lovers for instance uh but with this particular shot we see them in a different context uh with with really dark gloomy Shadows at night and it's such a high contrast of something that's questionable uh versus something we understand which is this couple in the middle and you know again I there are a ton of books that are published with the same amount of work homeless people under a bridge uh you know but this stuff really stands up today because not only is it kind of a record of this you know night world that that happened in Paris in the in the 30s but but also you know kind of something we're not at this point even still used to seeing today which is is this type of photojournalistic night photography these guys working on a train uh the woman uh standing in the shadow here uh anyway so check out brasai some absolutely wonderful work um you know you can't go wrong okay so that is brasai I will put a link to this book in the show notes and if you want to find the show notes and see some other podcasts that we do uh we have another photography one called the photography show but you can find all that stuff at thepublic broadcast.com and don't forget that you can follow us on Twitter if you want to follow me my handle is at Ted Forbes or if you just want to get show updates and not deal with all the stuff I put out uh on a day-to-day basis you can follow um at aop uncore podcast so anyway that's all for today and once again this has been the Art of Photography and thank you for watchingjoin us now on Flickr at flickr.com groups slart of Photography hey everybody my name is Ted Forbes welcome back once again to another episode of The Art of Photography today we are talking about a um commonly known as a French photographer even though he was born in Transylvania G named brasai who was born Uli Halas um and he was a Transylvanian citizen who did a lot of traveling around Europe uh was actually did a lot of work as a journalist and took pictures and eventually ended up submitting some of his photos to go along with journal entries in various Publications uh generally to make a little bit more money on things uh but today he's known as you know uh this wonderful photographer who kind of created this whole well didn't create but but captured this whole world of Paris at night um not just Paris he did a lot of night work in general um we're going to be looking at this book which is called Paris By Night and there really are a lot of bruss side books that you can find uh they all kind of contain the same things uh this is just one I happen to happen in like uh but anyway let's have a look and see what he's all about okay so we're going to look at some photos by brasai and uh this is a pretty easy book to find uh it's just Paris by night um you can find there's a ton of books that uh are published um brze works and most of them are these night shots which are what he was known for and what's you know you got to kind of consider by today's standard some of these shots uh may seem kind of a little bit uh lackluster in a way um but what you have to remember is at the time uh that he was photographing these in the 30s that film emotions glass plate emulsions they were nowhere near as high uh in terms of sensitivity as what we have today with film or digital cameras these are slow films they required long shutter speeds uh uh you know um again this high contrast shooting at night was not an easy proposition uh at this time uh this is a really wonderful shot of just cobblestones on the street uh in Paris and what's interesting about brasai is there really what he uncovered in these photos was really a whole another world that or was a new way of looking at things but it was a it was a world that that people didn't normally associate with photography at that time because of you know night shooting being as difficult as it was and you can see that a lot of these images are not perfect they're grainy they're gritty uh but there's really an interesting um you know element to a lot of these this obviously being the Arc of Triumph and There's A Train That's pass in in front of here that you can just barely see and so you know a technique that Bai kind of was known for using uh most often was you know you're shooting in the dark but how do you use the very little available light there is to create the form the shape the definition of the composition this one on the left uh you know basically you have some Street lighting down here at the bottom but that's it a lot of grain up here so these are all very high contrast photos same with this one on the on the right where you basically get a hint of this sculpture down here on the lower left these are hard to shoot shooting a video too just because they are so dark uh but again uh you know just shooting in the dark and then I think what brasai was doing was trying to find ways that using what light did exist to define the composition um you know just absolutely beautiful stuff uh notredam here um you can see the uh the streets that align it basically that's the only light that you have in this probably even a cloudy night which would give you a little bit of reflection uh but beautiful work uh these cars coming down probably sh Le or something like that I'm not sure about that uh street light photos again uh let's see again this is uh really one of my favorites this was the cover shot on here but uh besid use of form of line this is just a street gutter that's defined but uh and there's not much to this other than being just a wonderful um study of shape of line of texture things like that uh you a lot of his shots were done too and here's another trick for shooting at night uh is actually shooting when you have either fog or just previously rained or even shooting in the rain you can get you know atmosphere that way but what happens is when the ground's wet you do get more reflection off of concrete stone than you normally do so obviously this was probably taken either in the fog or after a rainstorm uh you know again adding to that sense of drama I love this with the bridge and barely you know much like what we were talking about with with Shen's work um reducing a composition just with high contrast lighting to just the basic forms that that the viewer needs to understand in looking at the work um this is one of my favorite uh that Bai has taken um this is sorry I'm move stuff around here um basically you're looking at some kind of performance uh you can see the definition of the light reflecting off of the audience uh again very dark very gloomy and what's interesting is we don't see what's going on on the stage and again this is a extremely interesting spin on what's you know typically done with photography especially like this where you are turning the audience into the focal point of interest and it's almost a moot point of what could be going on the stage you have this grow being lifted up by people it's obviously part of something going on but we don't know what that is uh and you're actually forcing the viewer to kind of question or wonder or you know kind of create that sense um again here's kind of some circus tents that are lit anyway really wonderful work um these park bench shots and these are kind of some of the more famous ones uh this couple that are making out on a bench here and you know being able to capture that and and again I think this is repres resentative of you know we think of Paris being a city for lovers for instance uh but with this particular shot we see them in a different context uh with with really dark gloomy Shadows at night and it's such a high contrast of something that's questionable uh versus something we understand which is this couple in the middle and you know again I there are a ton of books that are published with the same amount of work homeless people under a bridge uh you know but this stuff really stands up today because not only is it kind of a record of this you know night world that that happened in Paris in the in the 30s but but also you know kind of something we're not at this point even still used to seeing today which is is this type of photojournalistic night photography these guys working on a train uh the woman uh standing in the shadow here uh anyway so check out brasai some absolutely wonderful work um you know you can't go wrong okay so that is brasai I will put a link to this book in the show notes and if you want to find the show notes and see some other podcasts that we do uh we have another photography one called the photography show but you can find all that stuff at thepublic broadcast.com and don't forget that you can follow us on Twitter if you want to follow me my handle is at Ted Forbes or if you just want to get show updates and not deal with all the stuff I put out uh on a day-to-day basis you can follow um at aop uncore podcast so anyway that's all for today and once again this has been the Art of Photography and thank you for watching\n"