Bilingues & Artistes Bilingues et Artistes: May 2014 | 页面 4

Photograph and text by Thomas Sittler

On bullshit

“Color is bullshit”.
Cartier Bresson’s genius was surely photography, but it seems he had a way with words, too. But wait, I’m being disingenuous,
taking Cartier’s words out of context. I’ll be honest and give you the full quote. It reads “William, color is bullshit”, and apparently Cartier was talking to William Eggleston. In a 2011 interview for V Magazine, the American photographer recalls the strange
encounter.
You know, I had a meeting with [Cartier], one in particular, it was at this party in Lyon. Big event, you know. I was seated with him and a couple of women. You’ll never guess what he said to me.
“William, color is bullshit.” End of conversation. Not another word. And I didn’t say anything back. What can one say?
I mean, I felt like saying I’ve wasted a lot of time. As this happened, I’ll tell you, I noticed across the room this really
beautiful young lady, who turned out to be crazy. So I just got up, left the table, introduced myself, and I spent the rest
of the evening talking to her, and she never told me color was bullshit.
It’s a funny anecdote, but Cartier’s traditionalism was no joke. He was against any darkroom manipulation, and even regarded
cropping as dishonest. He was known to insist that his prints include the first few millimeters of the unexposed negative around
the image, resulting in a black border. Now, I’m all for black and white, even if it means hipsterish Instagram filters. Perhaps because shades of gray are a reminder that photography is not about reproducing the real world in accurate, lifelike Technicolor,
but rather the production of a contrived object, a piece of art through which meaning is conveyed. But Cartier’s phrase, with
hindsight, seems about as ga Ս