Henri cartier-Bresson?!?

[Jason_1622]

I know this is a large format forum, but you've helped me so well with questions before and I know that someone here might have the answer...

Do you know if Henri Cartier-Bresson had a strong accent or if he sounded very american? Did he travel to florida for vacation in his later years? Is his wife still alive? Was his leica stuff stolen in the last ten years?

The reason I ask is because I just put two and two together. I ran across an old couple on a VERY exclusive florida island a few years back and the guy had a sweat leica. He was taking a photo of his wife and I offered to take a photo of them both. I said I liked his camera and he said it was a replacement because his old leica stuff was stolen. Anyway, I noticed that the guy looked a TON like HC-B and was wondering if I did indeed take a photo of the legend or just some rich old guy who was a leica man too...

[ronald moravec]

He had a very slight French accent, and was bald on top. He was not overweight. He had a slowish precise manner of speaking. Oh yes, he won`t let you take his picture.

[Andre Noble]

Jason, I know the man who your are referring to. He was actually a vacationing Jew (may God love him) from Brooklyn named David Cohen.

Back to your question, according to the recent issue of photo and darkroom techniques, the real HCB stopped taking photographs around 1985-ish and took up his first love again, which was painting.

[tim atherton]

+ his wife is photogorpaher Martine Franck who is quite a bit younger than HCB

[Ellis Vener]

He actually continued photographing until very recently (I think the most recent date I've seen on an image made by him dated from 1999 or 2000) and continued carrying a small Leica with him everywhere, he just didn't make a big deal about it. From doing a lot of research about him for an article I wrote for Professional Photographer I've come to the conclusion that he must have really loved all of these stories about him, especially the false ones like the one about him hiding the camera behind a handkerchief one.

[Jason_1622]

Thanks. I knew his wife was martine franck, but didn't know she was quite a bit younger than him. This guy's wife was close to the same age, within ten years. I knew that he stopped taking pro photos, but this guy was just taking vacation photos of his wife (he seemed to enjoy her company tremendously). He looked like HC-B. He seemed like he spent a lot of time on the upper east coast of the USA by his actions and accent. He didn't want me to touch his leica and was only convinced when his wife begged him to say yes. She liked the idea of a photo of the two of them together.

I thought the chance of it being HC-B was slim, but imagine if I actually got to use his camera to take his photo!?!?!?! Maybe it was this David Cohen guy. If he vacationed on boca grand island several years back...

[Frank Petronio]

In the 1950s, I pushed Edward Weston's shopping cart once. He was bald, old and haggard looking, picking up discarded soda bottles outside of Carmel. He had a younger lady with him, and a whole bunch of cats.

In the 1960s, a large touring station wagon came barrelling down from Yosemite, and put my family's car in the ditch. I swear it was Ansel Adams.

Sometime in the 1970s I was in a steamy hot-tub with a bunch of ladies, and a guy who looked like Lee Friedlander kept asking the naked hippie girls to model for him. I later saw his book of nudes and recognized some of the hairy girls I used to hang with.

In the 1980s, I became stranded in central Africa and ran out of food. My stomach bloated and I lost a lot - a helluva a lot - of weight. Some guy with a Leica kept sticking it in my face, even though the flies were buzzing all over me and I felt like dirt. That James Nachtewey guy really was a pain in the butt.

Luckily, I got out of there and worked my way back to health. I started running a mine for some East Indians in a Sri Lankan backwater. Saldago. Page 153.

But the best encounter with a famous photographer was a few months ago... I was skateboarding outside the Chateu Marimot in LA when a Bentley came tearing out of the parking lot, nicked me, and collided into a wall. yep, you guessed it - Helmut Newton.

[Andre Noble]

That sounds a lot like Forest Gump!"

[Bill_1856]

Seen anything of Elvis lately, Frank?