Cartier Bresson: A Question of Colour

I went to the Cartier Bresson: A Question of Colour exhibition at Somerset House this week featuring 15 of Bresson's images (some never seen before in the UK) and another 75 by other photographers of the "Street Photography" genre.  A very exciting exhibition, I was thrilled to see works by Melanie Einzig and Joel Meyerowitz - in fact more thrilled than seeing Bresson's work.  (sorry...).  The objective of the exhibition was to make the point about the "decisive moment".  I think of Bresson as the founder of street/urban photography, and modern monochrome images.  However, the exhibition showed that the evolution of street photography to include colour is to the genre's advantage.  Many images work better in colour, as colour is one of the themes that street photographers seek.  In addition the size and quality of modern printed images is outstanding, compared with the Bresson era, so these modern images overshadowed Bresson's works considerably.  I wonder why the curator did not mount the Bresson's in one section so that they would not look overwhelmed by later works.

Images that really intrigued me by photographers new to me:

Sozio, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2010 by Karl Baden (and all Baden's images that had been included) - I loved the theme of photographing through the car window - like driving through madness!  The fact that the images were shot through the window gave a sense of detachment which highlighted the eccentricity of his subjects. 

Untitled (Chihuahua, NYC), 1993 by Jeff Mermelstein - dogs seem to be very powerful in street photography.  In this it's as if the street belongs to the dog.  The dog is the only subject actually looking at the camera - everyone else is just getting on with what they need to do!

Sharkbay, 2006 by Trent Parke- this is wonderful.  A line of emus walking towards some houses - incredible brilliant white but not blown out against stunning blue.  The sense of heat is really captured.

Bombardopolis, Haiti, 1986 by Alex Webb - as above - stunning use of colour and light - I like the unusual viewpoint in this image - over the donkey's head with the image framed on each side by people.

I might just pop back and look at this exhibition again!

For more information on the exhibition see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/nov/07/henri-cartier-bresson-photography

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bab40ff0-28de-11e2-9591-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Bwy9weZs