Photojournalism

Henri Cartier-Bresson


Henry Cartier-Bresson created what he called the 'Decisive Moment', the moment that the picture ties together. He said he had to be in the right place at the right time.

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare.
The photo to the right, was Henri Cartier-Bresson's first big picture, if it had been taken a second earlier, or later, if would have been a completely different photo. This shows how it was true to life. This photo was taken in 1932, just before the second world war and some people have mentioned they feel the broken wheel to the lower half of the image signifies a big change to come for Europe.

The Leica Camera

The photo to the right shows Henri Cartier Bresson using his favourite type of camera, the Leica camera. It was made by the company 'Leica Camera AG' and the first prototypes were made by Oskar Barnack in 1913.

War Photography
Although the Decisive moment was key in the change of photojournalism, it was not always helpful in war photography. There was no context behind a photo. The audience would only see what the photo showed them, and no background or information about the picture. Two famous war photographers were Robert Capa and Tony Vaccaro who both saw the wars as they happened which was a new concept years ago.

Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a photojournalist and photographer who covered five wars during his years, including the Spanish Civil War where one of his most famous pictures, The Falling Soldier was taken. He had two rules he used to make his photos a success and they were;
1.  'Get close'
2.  'Get closer'.
He believed to truly achieve a photo that was both honest and true to the event, he had to get in the action and get involved.

Tony Vaccaro
Tony Vaccaro was an American soldier who photographed the war from the battlefield. His work is so famous because he was a soldier in the wars he photographed, he knew the lives of the soldiers he took photos of, and the emotions behind it. As a soldier, Vaccaro couldn't afford to use the Leica camera he would have liked to use, so opted for the less expensive, Arga C3 for his photography.

He once said to 'place the person you photographed on a pedistool' and to determine the personality of the person, narrow it down to one word, and capture it.

To the left, is a photograph of Pablo Picasso, a famous painter and sculpturer taken by Tony Vaccaro in 1968. Picasso had previously asked Henri-Cartier Bresson to take a portrait of him but felt he had failed to capture the image he wanted to portray in the two years he had tried. He then asked Tony Vaccaro to try to take the photo and proceded to pose for him until Vaccaro said that his camera was broken. Picasso imediately dropped any poses and walls he had up and Tony Vaccaro took his opportunity to take the photo. He felt it captured his true personality.