The French, especially the Impressionists, drank absinthe. The Irish almost always seem to be drunken. Both have slurred speech under such circumstances. No wonder so much art pontification is unintelligible, or even downright senseless. No all of it, by any means, but enough to make one think twice about reading anymore of it before consulting one's own pair of eyes first.
Not the same subject.
I think I have some idea what you may mean,
Atget's composition feels almost like a two-dimensional representation, with the boat perfectly parallel and the trees framing it like a fairytale scene or a carefully staged, timeless set. Bresson, on the other hand, plays with volume, texture, tight framing, and depth of field to create a sense of tension.
In that respect, it's almost as though Atget and HCB had swapped personalities for these photos. Atget shows us an ugly contemporary tub, fit for use. HCB shows a decaying beauty from a passing culture.I'd say Atget's boat is at peace with nature, exists within it, and the photo presents a tranquil scene - innocent, if you want to think that way.
The other photo shows a boat that is being consumed buy nature, in what looks like a swamp of decay. No tranquility other than slow decay after death.
In that respect, it's almost as though Atget and HCB had swapped personalities for these photos. Atget shows us an ugly contemporary tub, fit for use. HCB shows a decaying beauty from a passing culture.
Err.. Come again? What's ugly about Atget's boat? What's beautiful about HCB's disaster?
Not all French and Irish people are drunks.
Sooner or later it's bound to happen that some will be discussing boats, while others are discussing photographs of boats!
Sooner or later it's bound to happen that some will be discussing boats, while others are discussing photographs of boats!
I don’t actually want to discuss boats here. You are entirely missing the point of what I wrote in #480. But it doesn’t matter, move on.snus - I equipped the folks who built the biggest most expensive wooden as well as CF yachts in the world, including racing ones if you're concerned about shape. I'm sure there are thousands of pictures of those. I prefer Atget's boat.
Atget shows us an ugly contemporary tub, fit for use. HCB shows a decaying beauty from a passing culture.
Atget’s composition is more original and unusual
Phew! Thank you for getting my point (and explaining it better than I had).I had to go look more closely at the boats (not being familiar with boats but being very familiar with how things are built) to see it, but I get what you're saying. If you could buy a boat at Ikea, it would be like Atget's boat. There's nothing special about the boat itself in Atget's print, in spite of how nice the print is. Cartier-Bresson's boat, though, has indications of highly skilled work - but it's all rotting away and being swallowed by the swamp.
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Atget's trees.
I’m thinking that the existence of dozens or scores of Atget tree photos says something about his motivations.
FWIW, my guess is that they were purely copy for the artists. It's not that easy to think how a particular kind of tree 'goes' when you're in a studio, e.g. what makes the difference between an ash and an oak. If you do a web search, most of Atget's trees are in winter plumage, i.e. they are illustrating the underlying structure. Many or most of Atget's trees are 'interesting' specimens: gnarly, twisted, or ivy clad. And they are mostly plum centre (excuse tree pun) of the frame.Also, though, lots of people like sketching trees or painting trees, so that may have been useful for his artist market.
I've owned five boats and sailed extensively. And you?In short, Atget's boat lacks curves. Even in its broken state, HCB's boat is still recognisably a finer construction and a thing of grace.
I can recommend this:
View attachment 394295
...but it is 650 pages long.
I suppose if you have no boating experience, it may be difficult to understand that curves give a boat life as well as beauty.
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