> One of the images in the slideshow struck me: > http://www.pixelsmithy.com/img/waistLevel.png > I've named the file that because, looking at the people's > expressions, it occurs to me that these people would not have > these expressions if the camera was at eyelevel and the > photographer looking at them through it. These two people > appear to be observing the photographer fiddling, but not > with that look that most people assume when a camera is > pointed "at" them. I know very little about Cartier-Bresson, > but I'm curious whether this photo was taken with a > waist-level finder camera, as I suspect (or if that can be > found out). If it is a waist level finder, then the > photographer was standing on a chair or something, looking at > the perspective, which appears to put the lens near even with > the tops of their heads. > > While technically a very nice photograph, I think it is the subjects' > expressions that make it particularly intriguing to me, and I > suspect that there was some reason that they were > more-or-less unaware of the moment the photograph would be captured. > > Darren Addy > Kearney, NE
This is considered to be one of HCB's finest photographs and a great example of his eye and speed. The people are Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie. She is the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie. They are joint Nobel laureates, just like her Ma & Pa. The story is that HCB was asked to photograph them. When the door of their apartment was opened this is what he saw, so he took a snap and got the shot immediately. He then stayed for a while and took a few more snaps just for the sake of politeness. The photograph is dated 1944 so it was almost certainly taken with the Leica rangefinder HCB buried before the war and dug up again after his escape from a POW camp. HCB was a very tall man. I've just looked at a few other portraits in one of his books, and a number of them show a similar perspective. If he was using a 35mm lens it could be exaggerated by the distortion, but it does also look to me as though he might have been stepping down into the apartment. Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
