Street Photography: Cartier-Bresson or Winnogrand?
The Bus Station ~ Beşiktas
This is the sort of photograph that might easily be captured using a modern camera-phone. In fact it was taken with a small Pretec Compact in 2004. I made the image as a slide in a presentation to the International Association For Family Therapy Congress in Istanbul but, perhaps unremarkably, about half of my presentation featured the philosophy of one of my favourite street photographers.
In the mileau of street photography several people stand tall, of those living there are Dave Beckerman, Matt Weber, Markus Hartell and Nitsa. But of the recently departed Henri Cartier-Bresson and Garry Winogrand are also worth examination.
Cartier-Bresson and Winogrand both used Leica rangefinder cameras. Where they differed was in their choices of preferred focal length and composition.
The standard 50mm lens, favoured by Cartier-Bresson, provides a perspective similar to that rendered by the naked eye. It minimises distortions whilst providing adequate depth of field. Cartier-Bresson studied painting prior to taking up photography and was an accomplished draughtsman. Like Winnogrand he made his pictures quickly, and sometimes shot more than one image of a subject ~ he rarely allowed anything to proceed to printing that wasn’t exquisitely balanced in its composition.
Winnogrand, however, used a 28mm wide angle lens, which made him get close to his subjects. There is frequently tension in his compositions. In part this is caused by lens, but also Winnogrand wasn’t above adding tension by shooting at unusual angles.
If you want to know if it was Cartier-Bresson or Winnogrand who inspired me when taking the image above just click on it. It will take you to the original photograph I had in my mind to precede it in my presentation.
P.S. Note the advert for Kola Turka, it was a crucial metaphor in the presentation.
