Henri Cartier-Bresson

 Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of my photo icons. His photography documents the historical importance of photography. Yet his photographs are timeless, passionate, and emotional. One of my biggest struggles as a photographer has been to depict in my work the emotionalism of the scenes I have photographed. I look at Cartier-Bresson's work as the epitome of defining the emotionalism of his scenes: this is the greatest beauty of his work. It is a wholly realistic and entirely honest glimpse.

Cartier-Bresson started his career in France during WWII and, to make his extraordinary story short, he ended up in the United States and founded the legendary Magnum Photography along with Richard Capa. Cartier-Bresson's methods also interest me. His photography are consistently shot in 35mm, a format very new at the onset of his career, and this method somewhat defines the beauty of his work. His images aren't always crystal clear, but through the utilization of 35mm, Cartier-Bresson set the standard for capturing the unexpected moment. This is something we all take for granted since the advent of 35mm, then consumer point and shoots in addition to the invention of the auto-focus. Cartier-Bresson's photographs are conceptually and compositionally stunning.

I seek in many of my outdoor photographs to focus on the beauties of subtleties of seemingly overlooked scenes. As much as possible I try to point my camera away from those objects that are photographed constantly. When I look at Cartier-Bresson's work I am overwhelmed by his brilliant capturing of the beauties in the subtleties. I look at his photographs whenever I need some inspiration for composition and contrasts.

 Above all else, Cartier-Bresson's images speak to me of the grand adventure of photography. It is, and never will be, about the money or the fame. It is about the image- a preservation of a reality that will never again exist.

Photo Credits: Photos 1-5 Courtesy of http://artstor.org and the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation. 

                      Photo 6 Copyright Daniel S. Neuner.

1. Behind the San Gare Saint Lazare, Paris 

2. New England 

3. Arizona

4. Cuauhctemocztin street, Mexico City

5. Brie, France

6. The Pain of Clarity 

Gordon Cheung

      I  found and was intrigued by Gordon Cheung's mixed media art through the Psychedelic catalog for the upcoming Psychedelic show at the MAG. Cheung lives and works in London. In most of his art work Cheung uses the stock listings or financial sections of newsprint. He layers acrylic gel and spray paint to formulate his images from the print, all of which is fixed on canvas. 

     Cheung's work is visually stunning and, paired with its intelligent presentation, his works makes a strong statement concerning societal chaos.  I an drawn to how the colors seem to melt off of the pages, while the overwhelming multitude of stock listings and financial trading numbers remains. In most of his work, the stock listings are there only as backdrop, but their presence not only changes the attitude of the work:  the drab and undersaturated look it creates changes the overall mood of the work. 

    Cheung's work varies from desolate landscape scenes to portraits of people and animals. His work remains focused around the idea of the apocalypse both post and prior.  Cheung's work is an extensive body of work. On one side, the viewer is treated to the post-apocalypse through mural-like images that do not seem far from images visible in newspapers daily. On the other, Cheung presents pre-apocalypse through his use of images depicting those elements that have the power to lead to the apocalypse. For example Cheung is fascinated with religious symbolism, and cultural facts that can be seen as evidence of extremism in society. With the latter,  images that depict famous celebrities and billionaires, embellish how important these people are on society. It is as if Cheung  is saying that  such a small group of the 7 Billion people of earth own a large majority of all wealth on earth. Certainly paired alongside stock listings, this comparison becomes stronger.

For my own work, I was fascinated by how realistic Cheung's pieces seemed to be. At the very least, I saw in Cheung's works a depiction of the world as is possible through continuous societal decay and insensitivity. I am inspired by his work to try to make my work stronger by merging edginess without being blatantly crude. Though his work is not too similar technically to my process, conceptually I share with Cheung a strong interest in the ideas of ruin and disaster and how it pertains to our surrounding comfort bubbles.

All Photographs courtesy of Gordon Cheung

http://www.gordoncheung.com/index.html