Agnes Sire

I'm among the billions of fans of HCB's street photography - really his creation of an entirely new artistic genre. But at the core I'm more of a people photographer than a street guy, as much as I love the rush of shooting street. This collection of Henri's portraits - what's the best term here? - shots captured in relaxed moments? - environmental unposed portraits? - PHOTOS is breathtaking. HCB captures that moment of inner silence in his subjects that he famously (as reflected in the book's introduction) could never find in himself when somebody else was shooting him.

Favorite from this time through the collection: Ezra Pound - intensity doesn't begin to describe this image. Martin Luther King at work at his desk. Jean-Marie Le Clezio and wife. Jean-Paul Sartre and Fernand Pouillon. Julien Gracq (in perhaps the only eye-contact moment in the collection). Joan Miró, a street scene in Warsaw, Marc Chagall, Carl Jung, Samuel Beckett.

Another reviewer here decried the fact that HCB couldn't get any of his subjects to lock eyes and smile. But what these images show is something far more profound about their inner character. It's gorgeous and inspiring work.
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