Andre Kertesz and Henri Cartier- Bresson are photojournalists that both captured the life moments with their camera. They endevoured to "give meaning to everything" with their camera, as Andre Kertesz infuenced the work of Henri Cartier- Bresson, they both showed pictures in juxtaposition, which is.
two objects are positioned next to each other with the intent of comparing or contrasting them. The photographs shown are works of Andre Kertesz wherein in people are oblivious of their surroundings and just go about their daily life. The second picture is that of Henri Cartier-Bresson where a mother and son, who were separated by war was reunited in New York. The extra ordinary thing of this picture were the people surrounding them seems to be nonchalant and oblivious of the drama that is taking place between mother and son.
Both artist were travellers, worked intuitively, endevoured " to give meaning to everything" with their camera, they liked spontaneity in their works, patient in catching the right moments, not very concerned with photographs as hobby, craft, science or art but gives more importance on the subject of the photo. They want to capture the feeling of the moment with sophisticated understanding of composition, the role of light and shadow, aerial views, contrast of near and far, thus creating pictures with no obvious harshness or blur but rather almost impressionistic photographs.
Whereas Eugene Smith and Sebastio Salgado are both humanist photographer which is according to the Society for Humanistic Photography, it is a photography discipline that focuses primarily on people rather than accessories. Eugene Smith is an American photojournalist that made photo essays or documented the General Election in United Kingdom in 1950, documented Pittsburg, that supposedly to take him 3 weeks of documentation but spanned in 3 years and published a book of that. He also exposed the Minamata Disease in the world by publicizing in detail how Chisso factory in Tokyo that causes Minamata disease by discharging heavy metals into water sources around Minamata. Photo taken by Smith shown above of mother bathing his son suffering from Minamata disease.
Sebastio Salgado also inherited the telling capabilities of Eugene Smith in his humanistic photographs, his interest is to tell his stories of suffering of the people more in newspaper to reach the largest number of readers as possible. He spend time developing stories of how people are surviving in the midst of hardships and difficulties of life. The above photographs depicts the workers and miners at the goldmines of Brazil.
Eugene Smith and Sebastio Salgado photography are brutally vivid, documenting how human spirit soared above the inferno of destruction that they were immersed in. They are modern, refreshing, empathetic and almost optimistic. They consider photography as a small voice that could be use as a medium to be heard by many. The above photograph is by Smith, Dewey Defeats Truman, Nov. 2 1948 and the below photograph is by Salgado depicting peohttp://smithfund.org/humanistic-photographyple living in hardship in India.
We believe that Andre Kertsz, Henri Cartier, Eugene Smith, Sebastio Salgado were all great and well-respected photojournalist in their own right and field. One is not better than the other as they are both trying to capture the essence of life in anyway possible they can, going through all the great length of patiently waiting for the right moment at the right time as what Andre Kartersz and Henri Cartier did; and Eugene Smith and Sebastio Salgado also travelled around the globe exposing the hardships of people that otherwise we have never known of existed. They never compromised their beliefs, they protected the integrity in their works and never succumbed to the pressures of the commercial and outside world.
Reference:
http://www.leegallery.com/eugene-smith/eugene-smith-photography
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1983868_2128603,00.html
http://thephotobook.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/sebastiao-salgado/http://smithfund.org/humanistic-photography
http://photofocus.com/http://alexdobson.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/the-master-of-the-photo-essay-eugene-smith/2012/04/01/photographers-that-you-should-know-henri-cartier-bresson/
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/the-mines-of-serra-pelada/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Eugene_Smith
http://blog.photoshelter.com/2012/05/using-juxtaposition-to-enhance-your-photography/
