Time for a changing of the guard
I have made no secret of my love for the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau in these columns. For a young man growing up in 1970s London, these were Gods. As good as street photography gets.
Then when I got into photoblogging a while back, generally a disappointing experience, one day I chanced upon the work of a confusingly named photographer. Confusing because it was unclear exactly what his name was. His blog was named jbuhler.com/Water Molotov.
What?
What was not in doubt, looking at the pictures, was that this photographer, whatever his name, had a genius for capturing the passing glance. Where Cartier-Bresson photographed on an architectural scale, people just a component of the design, for this photographer people were the design.
Sceptical?
Take this image. About as complex as it gets, yet simply electric in its appeal. The two young women in the foreground are checking some electronic gadget. The young man is making the ubiquitous cell call. The beautiful couple to the right is engaged in a passionate kiss. The young man in the background looks on enviously. The photographer has not left a millimeter of wasted space in his composition. What a photograph!
You thought Ernst Haas had made the bullfight his own? Think again. Try Buhler’s version.
Remember that great Cartier-Bresson picture of the man outside the bullfight (again!) ring with the light glinting on his monocle? How about this for a modern version?
Decisive moments? Try this.
‘This photographer’ is Juan Buhler. He has just published a book of his street pictures and I am sending him my money tomorrow. In a world where it is very hard to get ‘known’ this great photographer deserves recognition and success. I look at his images and despair of ever taking another good street picture.
Street photography will no longer make anyone famous. After all, cannot anyone take a picture nowadays? In any one of a number of exotic locations?
Please join me in enjoying his wonderful work. Buy his book.
I do not know Buhler.
But he deserves your money.
For a daily snap be sure to visit my photoblog Snap!
Recent comments