Thursday, June 21, 2007

Martin Munkacsi

I was reading a recent post on TOP, which linked to (wonderful) pictures by Martin Munkacsi, whose name was completely unfamiliar, but I knew I'd seen this picture somewhere. A little research reminded me of the context.

Martin Munkacsi, Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika, ca. 1930

"[It] made me suddenly realize that photography could reach eternity through the moment. The only thing which completely was an amazement to me and brought me to photography was the work of Munkacsi. When I saw the photograph of Munkacsi of the black kids running in a wave I couldn't believe such a thing could be caught with the camera. I said damn it, I took my camera and went out into the street."
-- Henri Cartier-Bresson, November 1985

13 comments:

olidhar said...

tis as you say it is -- thanks for the name.
very beautiful.

Wildflower said...

I have a very cute butt in case you're interested. :D

Rapid I Movement said...

So that's what you shoot these days - underage porn?!

Btw, the French are a tad more kinky than others by default, methinks. Maaney, take Picasso's Dream for example. Okay he was a Spaniard, but still.

expiring_frog said...

@olidhar: Yes, it's lovely, isn't it?

@wildflower: I'm very interested, as is my pet ant.

@r-i-m: Dammit, he's on to me!

Have you seen five drunk Frenchmen serenading a Lebanese (man) in the middle of the night? I did, recently. It was an uplifting experience.

Ajat said...

the picture's not inherently profound.. profundity is subjective perception..

Ajat said...

just testing my inherent sense of the subtraction theory..

expiring_frog said...

@arghya: Umm. Umm? Umm!

S said...

You can't see the glee in their eyes, but the sinews, the spray, just the part of a hand within the frame, speaks so much more than shots of happy faces ever could.
Really beautiful or as a cheesy Indian ad says splendourful! ;)
By the way,don't know you from Adam, but mind if I link to your blog? I really love some of the work you link to.

Anonymous said...

do you know of any software which can download videos from the films divison of india site?

Maddy said...

It's so beautifully captured!

expiring_frog said...

@anansi: Sure, go ahead :).

@bhooter raja: Nup.

@madhura: Yup.

Anonymous said...

Okay, one day I walked into International Center of Photography (www.icp.org) in New York. Guess who they had on display in their exhibition? HCB's scrapbook (original prints) and Martin Munkacsi's almost entire work. I think this day was the highlight of my 7 months in New York. If I remember correctly, Munkacsi died in penury. Much of his work is lost. But whatever remains, its very inspirational for any photographer. I dare say, Cartier-Bresson had his share of fame ... Munkacsi didn't.

expiring_frog said...

@Z: You're lucky! Incidentally, I saw L'amour Tout Court on the flight back. Amazing film, I have to send it to you if you haven't seen it already. Are you still in the States?