The Master

I recently visited the Henri Cartier Bresson (HCB) retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and am still reeling from the lessons it taught me, by observing the level of mastery of this wonderful artist. I can say this, even though his photographic expression was largely journalistic and people-oriented, neither of which are my primary area of inspiration.

That said, whenever I blog on issues of composition, I am always measuring myself against Cartier Bresson's standard. If I wanted to "compare and despair", I could focus on all that I felt distanced me from the magisterial level of performance that he demonstrated throughout his lifetime, but I will instead share on another area of similarity where I have independently and unknowingly been emulating him: the Surrealist theory of “Explosante-fixe”.

Surrealism

Unlike myself, HCB was particularly interested in theoretical ideas of art, particularly those of the Surrealists.  Andre Breton defined “Explosante-fixe” as “the state of a thing perceived to be simultaneously at rest and in movement”. HCB liked to frame a scene and then wait for someone to enter the frame and be caught in movement, frequently blurred, as much due to the limitations of the film stock he was using, as his technical choices. Modern equipment largely eliminates this problem, so that the visual effect has to be designed into the image capture.

That designing process is how I enabled this image taken at the 2013 final stage of the Tour de France. 

Copyrighted Digital Photograph

The settings were:

Camera: Nikon D800

Lens: VR 70-200mm zoom f/2.8G

Focal Length: 70mm

VR: OFF

Focus Mode: AF-C

Aperture: f/13

Auto Focus -Area Mode: Single

Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority

Exposure Compensation : 0EV

Metering: Matrix

Mounted on a Monopod with lens collar loose

Shutter Speed: 1/125s

ISO Sensitivity: 400

Technique

Positioned at a point where the race turned sharply to my right, I was struck by the relative movements of the “peloton” of massed riders versus the riders seeking to show well on the final stage by riding ahead of the peloton, however briefly.

I realized that panning with the solo rider would capture him speeding at right angles to the oncoming mass of the chasing group. Moving head on towards the camera, they are relatively motionless, while the leader is speeding past, requiring a rapid pan.

The result is a peloton “at rest” and a rider “in movement”, bizzarely with the former blurred out and the latter in focus. Perfectly Surrealist and an example of “Explosante-fixe”. I was only to learn how this was conceptualized a year later , when I visited the exhibition.

In another context, I used one of my favourite techniques of moving the camera while it takes a slow exposure to create dream-like light paintings. This one is of the pianist/ composer Johan Hugosson in rehearsal for his world premiere of “Literas Loquendi”. 

Copyrighted Digital Photograph

Another exemplar

The movement/ stillness dynamic is visible both in the images of him at rest and standing, as well as the blur effect of the still surroundings. This one adds the Surrealist’s much-loved effect of dreaminess. All of which is to say that I am perhaps nearer than I think I am to emulating another of my photographic exemplars, the quintessential Surrealist Man Ray. What do you think? 

Copyright Paul Grayson 2014