Hi I'm Doug McKinlay and you're watching AdoramaTV. For this episode I'm going to
take a look at some of the work produced by photographers who influenced me when
I was younger and who continue to influence me today.
Now, the list is long and continues to get longer almost on a daily basis.
However with our limited time I'll have to stick to three or four, but that doesn't mean I
can't name drop. Some of the photographers I would look at for inspiration in a
documentary
reportage street arena will be Steve McCurry, Paula Bronstein, Martin Parr,
Don McCullin, Robert Capa, Diane Arbus James Nachtwey and of course, Henri Cartier-Bresson.
I'm just touching the tip of the iceberg here. So, the four I've chosen look at from
my list are Henri Cartier-Bresson,
Robert Capa, Steve McCurry and James Nachtwey. I have chosen these
photographers because they influenced me greatly in different times, both as a
teenage amateur and later as a professional.
I'm not sure who to start with, Robert Capa or Cartier-Bresson. I think Cartier-Bresson,
only because he's probably better known and I came to him first as a teenager when I began to
take photography seriously.
Cartier-Bresson is definitely one of the giants of photojournalism and his
pictures are a great reflection of mid-20th century life.
He was one of the first photographers to use the 35mm format in a small Leica
Rangefinder camera. His style was a juxtaposition of the anonymity and
intimacy, something he said he was able to develop due to Leica's small size.
He first trained as an artist, a painter and you can see this in his intricate
compositions, but unlike the painter, you recognize that the photojournalist has a
creative fraction of a second of when to take the picture.
'You must know with intuition when to click the shutter button', he said. 'This is
the moment the photographer is creative', which became known as Cartier-Bresson's
decisive moment, a maxim by which all photo-journalists live by, even today. We are
constantly looking for that split second when all the drama comes together.
Unfortunately it's always with mixed results.
While Cartier-Bresson may have been the Mozart of photography, Capa was definitely the Guns n' Roses.
He was flamboyant,
gregarious and brave, but above all extremely talented.
You just have to look at his surviving images of the D-Day landings in Normandy
or some of his work from the Spanish Civil War to get a sense of how he operated. They're haunting.
He famously said 'If your pictures aren't good enough, then you're not close enough.'
Again one of those Maxim's that all photojournalists still live by today.
Now I'm not advocating anybody putting themselves in harm's way. I just think that
by looking at the work of both Cartier-Bresson and Capa, arguably the two photographers at
the forefront of modern photo-journalism, you'll start to get a sense of
how the genre has developed over the past six or seven decades.
I think, ultimately, what these two photographers passed on to future
generations is that photo journalism is about living in the moment, about being
not only compassionate about the world around them, but excited about it too and
of course, getting it on pixels. The next two photographers whose work I've always respected
are Steve McCurry and James Nachtwey.
I'll start with Steve McCurry. Now he's best known for the Afghan girl photograph
that ran on the cover of the National Geographic in June of 1985.
It might be a defining image for McCurry but he's so much more than that one picture.
One of the main reasons why I've chosen him today and why I've always loved his work is
his use of color. So much of old school photo-journalism is black and white which
I absolutely love, but with Steve McCurry's work, he shows that stunning and emotional images
can be made in color too. His travel portraits are mesmerizing and have a real
painterly quality and his use of available light is truly inspiring.
I don't think I'd be a photographer today if I hadn't discovered Steve McCurry.
He's the one photographer I keep coming back to and one I still think I can learn a
lot from. And he continues to produce amazing work even now.
Moving on to James Nachtwey. I think the only word I can come up with when
talking about James Nachtwey is awe. I am in awe of him. When it comes to modern
photojournalism, few can match not only Nachtwey's skill with a camera but his
approach to the world around him. He once said, 'I have been a witness and these
pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and
must not be repeated'. He often calls himself an anti-war photographer, and in
that regard, his work can sometimes be difficult to look at, but for those who
want to follow in the footsteps of great document photographers, Nachtwey's pictures
should be mandatory viewing. In my opinion he is one of the greatest living
photojournalists and I'd rank him up there with Capa any day of the week.
The common thread that binds these four photographers together and the others is
their approach to the world around them.
They don't shy away from what they see and experience. They get intimately involved.
For documentary photographers looking for inspiration you could do worse than
studying not only these greats
but those who follow in their footsteps. Thanks for watching and
I'm Doug McKinlay for AdoramaTV. Don't forget you can also subscribe to
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Center for more great tips and tricks.