Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer

I received an old, worn copy of “Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer” in the mail today. Upon going through the book, I’ve made some observations: many of these photos are quite out-of-focus. A whole lot of them are a little bit blurry because HCB used too slow of a shutter speed and there was camera shake when the shutter was pressed. You know, the kind of things that people rip others apart for on photography message boards on the internet. But here’s the deal: none of that bullshit matters. HCB knew composition. He was patient. He was in the right place at precisely the right time. He often followed the rules, but he also had no problem breaking the rules. He broke A LOT of rules. Fuck the rules.