industrial #6
Sitting on giant's shoulders (part 1)
If you are a photographer and you never heard of Henry Cartier-Bresson, you are in the wrong business. Considered one of the founders of Magnum (the most prestigious photo agency), when Cartier-Bresson’s name is coming up, the first thing in people minds is:
- street photography (you’re not wrong there, for most of his photos he got the inspiration from streets);
- documentary photography (100% correct, that’s how I see him);
- 35mm Leica (yes, that was his favorite tool).
To all of that I want to add something else: Cartier-Bresson was a pioneer of industrial photography. You can argue that what Cartier-Bresson did was documentary and it doesn’t matter where he did it (industrial places) but that is exactly what industrial photography is – documenting the industrial part of everyday life.
It is no secret that in 1954 Cartier-Bresson visited Moscow to document the communist life and the result is a book called “The people of Moscow”. During his time in Moscow, Cartier-Bresson visited the ZIS factory and there is where he produced some of the finest industrial photographs.
Getting inspiration from master’s work it’s always a good start.
The magic is your text and the knowledge behind. Thanks for sharing!
The photo of a worker and female supervisor is one of my favourite HCB images. It has so many stories within it.