Talk:Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Contents 1 Death date 2 Telephoto landscapes? 3 Copyright 4 Leica hype 5 Brownie Camera Reference 6 Private life references from Martine Franck entry 7 Developing his own film?

[edit] Death date

There is still some confusion about the date of HCB's death. Most sources say he died on Monday, August 2, but some (American) sources claim he died on Tuesday morning. All sources concur that he was buried on Wednesday. - Karl Stas 22:26, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The Telegraph obituary (not American) says August 3. - Nunh-huh 02:51, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I checked the French press. Le Monde and Le Figaro say he died on Monday, Libération says Tuesday! - Karl Stas 08:15, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Until it is resolved then, it isn't appropriate to report a certain date. "Died 2 or 3 August 2004" may be the best we can do. - Nunh-huh 08:34, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The contradicting media reports are based on two press releases, one by the French Ministry of Culture and another by Magnum Photos. The former puts the time of death on Monday, the latter on Tuesday morning. It is not entirely clear which version is endorsed by the family. The original text of the press releases is nowhere to be found. Le Monde refers to "sources close to the family". BBC first reported that HCB died on Monday, but now they only say he died "weeks short of his 96th birthday". - Karl Stas 10:14, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Le Monde has changed the date to August 3. Unfortunately, the web site of the HCB Foundation is unreachable and his bio on the Magnum site doesn't mention his death yet. Meanwhile, User:Simonides and User:194.51.20.124 have changed the date in the article, apparently without reading the talk page first. - Karl Stas 08:13, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

And it is not clear where he died: Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (Vaucluse) or in his house in Céreste. --Maha 13:02, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I think we can now decide in favour of August 3 (time) and Céreste (place). - Karl Stas 16:59, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

For the record. I heard he was dead on August 4. Ericd 19:49, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

No, he was buried that day. - Karl Stas 09:54, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

All the sources that I came across said "early morning Tuesday" ie 3 August, which may have been 2 August in America depending on the exact time (which I'm not aware of); since it was, apparently, Tuesday in France, we should retain 3 August until we have some evidence to the contrary. -- Simonides 05:29, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

At first, BBC and most French media said he died on Monday (local time). But the Magnum press release puts the time of death at Tuesday, 9:30am (local time). - Karl Stas 09:54, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Telephoto landscapes?

The current revision of the introductory paragraphs contains the following statement (emphasis added): Cartier-Bresson exclusively used Leica 35 mm rangefinder cameras equipped with normal 50mm lenses or occasionally a telephoto for landscapes. It strikes me as slightly unusual that he would have used a telephoto lens for landscapes. The conventional wisdom is that landscapes are best captured with normal or wide-angle lenses (of course, the conventional wisdom may very well be wrong). Is HCB's use of telephoto lenses a documented fact? MarkSweep 05:52, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Telephoto lenses can be used for landscape photography, but I don't know if HCB did this. A web search reveals the sentence was taken from Photo-Seminars.com. - Karl Stas 13:35, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Apologies for saving in the wrong language, instead of my own minority language. I was about to fix it when I found, to my pleasant surprise, it was already done. Thanks for your patience.Meabhar 21:00, 24 Sept, 2004 (UTC).

[edit] Copyright

Oops, very sorry, I have been so busy making edits to other articles that I missed the talk page on this. I'm also a Wikipedia (contributor) newbie. Again, my apologies, did not mean at all to ignore. I added the images previously but wasn't sure if they were fair use or not at the time. Speedoflight, October 2, 2005

All photos in this article are copyrighted! I think they should be removed, or is this considered "fair use"? - Karl Stas 09:32, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

• I've already marked the Magnum images {{ifd}}, but Speedoflight has not responded in any way. It's a shame -- Speedoflight is making great improvements to this article, but needs to pay some attention to talk pages. The images are explicitly NOT fair use. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 22:52, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

try contacting the foundation henri cartier-bresson who adminstrates his estate. they also have a good amount of photos of him (even on the top page). the prez of the foundation is the photographer who took the famous foto of him (the one you're using on top with the mirror) if im not mistaken. - would be good to confirm and credit her Martine Franck --Bine maya 06:47, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Leica hype

I find modern autofocus cameras boring. I like to use manuals cameras and I definitely find rangefinders easier to use in alvailable light... But I'm getting bored by all this contributions by Leica fanatics.... Until the seventies Zeiss lenses where definitely superior... HCB favorite lens was a Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f/1.5 in Contax mount with a Leica adapter (now a very rare and expansive accessory). Both photos HCB that illustrate the article are showing a Contax lens mounted on a Leica with an adapter, probably the Sonnar. Ericd 00:06, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Leica M eventually? M1 or 2? -- max rspct leave a message 03:09, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

During his life he used various cameras I think he used mostly a M3. Ericd 08:48, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Brownie Camera Reference

To: 12.217.192.63 Hi: You removed a statement in the Henri Cartier Bresson page concerning the Brownie camera and pointed to a reference. Can you please a post a citation (footnote and reference note) to the exact journal, author, date, page, etc. Thanks. --speedoflight | talk to me 06:19, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Private life references from Martine Franck entry

i'm a great fan of HCB, but the gap between the tone of this article and that of Martine Franck his fellow-magnum photographer, wife and legacy administrator is (was!!) too striking not to notice the gender bias:he's a genius. she's his second wife. i've reivised her entry now but it was mostly about HIM (even grammatically) and about her wife- and motherhood --Bine maya 06:45, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Developing his own film?

The article is inconsistent about whether Cartier-Bresson developed his own film. The section "The middle years" states that he and his wife lived in "a large studio with a small bedroom and kitchen and a bathroom where Henri once developed his films." However, the section "Technique" states "He never developed or made his own prints." So ... how to reconcile these statements? -- Docether 18:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)