ExpertDabbler

Where shall I start about this man? Shall I talk about mundane details like his childhood, adulthood etc or shall I talk about his philosophy? Or the fact that one fine day, he put down his camera and never looked at it again. Or that he always considered himself as a painter and not as a photographer?
Let’s forget all that. I think I can talk about the impact he has left on me and every other person who has ever touched a camera with any little seriousness.

On August 4th, 2004 photography lost its eye. Sure, it did. To me Henri Cartier Bresson was, is and will always be what one is meant to perceive when the word p-h-o-t-o-g-r-a-p-h-y is ever spelled.

During the 80s Appa used to get old ‘Popular photography’ magazines from Easwaran koil street in Townhall, Coimbatore for 20 bucks. That was how I chanced across this name first. Later on in the age of internet I, on an auspicious day, decided to google for HCB. Of the several bad habits I have, one silver lining is the insatiable urge to google a new, interesting name. My perspective as an amateur photographer has never been the same ever since.

He used simple 35mm rangefinder Leica. No telescopic zooms, no blinding flash lights, no darkroom tricks, color means ‘unwanted’ in his vocabulary, Photoshop was out of question during his days. Yet he produced visuals that will remain etched in memory for ever.

Check out some of his masterpieces here. . Expertdabbler takes great pride in screening a ‘Eye of the century’ aka HCB special.

Kaana Kann Kodi vendum

This entry was posted on Monday, March 6th, 2006 at 8:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.