It was a good Christmas with lots of fun, great food, lovely people and some super gifts. On the photography front I had another external hard disk for my ever expanding archive, a bean bag pod to support cameras, an Ansel Adams calendar and two excellent books, both by Henri Cartier-Bresson: 'The Minds Eye', which is a collection of his essays, and 'A Propos de Paris', which is based on the catalogue for his 1984 exhibition 'Paris at a Glance' (thank you Men, Lisa & Matt and Nik!).
Getting the Paris book was a real treat because it was so unexpected. I have always liked Cartier-Bresson's work particularly his street photography, something that the French seem to be remarkably good at. I really have enjoyed looking at the photographs so much so that I also dug out my little book of Robert Doisneau's images, another accomplished French photographer whose most famous work is probably 'The Kiss' taken in Paris in 1950. There has been some debate in recent years whether this picture was posed rather than a candid snapshot. It matters not because it is a great image.
I was lucky enough to visit France in the summer of 2010 and took some street photo's wandering around Cahors, a delightful and very photogenic city. Trawling through the images I found a picture that evoked the work of both Cartier-Bresson and Doisneau both of who captured French couples kissing. I didn't quite capture the kiss but it's close enough and, I think, an intimate shot.
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| 'Le Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville' by Robert Doisneau (Paris, 1950) |
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| Click the image for the bigger picture |
My image (above) is not posed! Converted to black and white using Adobe Camera RAW and cropped to 5x5.
This picture doesn't fit within the thirty minute rule and I hope you'll excuse me stretching the rules by which my blog usually abides by.
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