Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Behind the Gare St. Lazare
France
1933

Henri Cartier-Bresson
France
The Var Department
1932

Cartier-Bresson is possibly the first photographer whos work I fell in love with. Joel Meyerowitz put it brilliantly in The Genius of Photography, episode three, by saying "Bressons pictures where about being in the right place at the right time, He could step into a space and see the theatrical possibilities." Bresson would see the composition and then stop and think, what could happen here? I think this is a brilliant way of working which prepares the photographer for those desisive moments which can happen in a fraction of a second.

La Haine

La Haine (Hate)
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
France
1995

Another film that I believe is heavily influenced by photography. This time shot completely in black and white, this film follows the journey of a trio of teenage destitutes thoughout a 24 hour episode. I thouroughly recommend watching!

American History X

American History X
Directed by Tony Kaye
USA
1998

I first watched American History X a few years ago but re-visited it a last Monday and absolutely loved the flashback scenes which are all shot in black and white. I couldn't find much background on the director but its possible that he is heavily influenced by black and white photography. It was hard for me to miss the connection this time round. What an awesome film!

Robert Capa

Robert Capa
The Falling Soldier
Cerro Muriano, Cordoba front
Spain
1936

Robert Capa
Omaha Beach, Normandy Coast
France
6 June 1944

Thomas Dworzak

I Have recently being watching a lot of Magnum's In Motion essays and found this one on the georgian conflict titled A Georgian Diary, by Thomas Dworzak, very interesting.

Stuart Franklin

Stuart Franklin
Tiananman Square
1989
Beijing, China

What interests me about this image is that Charlie Cole took and published a similar image that went on to win the World Press Photo award but Franklin's image seems to be re-produced far more often. Extreme case of right place right time perhaps?

1989 - World Press Photo, Charlie Cole

I read in the book Magnum Stories that Cole and Franklin were actually sharing the same hotel room and the two obviously saw an opportunity to shoot and as a result took similar images.

M. C. Escher

M. C. Escher
Ascending and Descending
1960

M. C. Escher
Drawing Hands
1948

I first looked at Escher's work during my GSCE art course at high school. I was doing a self portrait project and used the above image as my main ifluence. This time I used his work as inspiration to my found objects project which focused on our perceptions on reality.