French artist Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB, 1908-2004) is considered a pioneer in the styles of candid- and street-photography. The phrase “decisive moment” is decidedly pithy in today’s vernacular, but what he advocated in that phrase is to hone in on the ability to gather all of the observable elements to construct an image, because that image might never come together or happen again.
When my own interest in photography grew, I understood I needed to learn what had come before. The HCB name and his photographs came up a lot in my study. To the here and now, seeing in person and to stand in front of the real prints of HCB’s photographs is a privilege, a true delight, and yet another learning opportunity that has come my way.
Established in 2022 as a national centre for lens-based media, Foto Wien got their wish and moved into their permanent home at the Arsenal grounds which once belonged to the Austrian military. On 21 March 2025, Foto Arsenal Wien opened its doors of Objekt (building) 19a to the public.
Over 200 items are on display in this retrospective exhibition of HCB’s career. As time passed, his images became noticeably less about surrealism, and more about photojournalism.
Foreground: Objekt 19a, Foto Arsenal Wien. Background: Objekt 24, A1 Telekom Richtfunkturm (radio relay tower).A1 is presently one of Austria’s 3 major mobile network providers, including Magenta and A3.
“Henri Cartier-Bresson: Watch! Watch! Watch!”, on display at Foto Arsenal Wien, from 28 June to 21 September 2025.
One of the most famous images by HCB: behind St. Lazare station at Place de l’Europe in Paris, France. 1932 image, 1950s-60s print. What’s exquisite is that moment where the tiny response time resides between the push of a button and the actual exposure on film before the inevitable splash.
Spain. 1933 HCB image, 1970s print. A beautiful image of radial symmetry with the trifecta of foreground, middle ground, and background.
Madrid, Spain. 1933 HCB image, 1970s print.
Valencia, Spain. 1933 HCB image, 1950s-60s print. Circles, squares, and the golden ratio means I can look at this image and find something to marvel at the construction and timing of the image.
Naples, Italy. 1960 HCB image, 1970s print.
The Wall at the corner of Bernauer Straße and Wolliner Straße, from West Berlin, Germany. 1962 HCB image, late-1970s print. While I grew up in the age of the Wall and I’ve digested as much imagery as possible of that time, my visits to Berlin and to this very street location long after the Fall of the Wall have always been a touch of the bittersweet in acknowledgment of those who tried but died trying to breach the wall.
Havana, Cuba. 1963 HCB image, 1970s print.
Moscow, Soviet Union. 1954 HCB image, 1954 print.
Kashmir region, disputed between India and Pakistan. 1948 HCB image, 1970s print.
Srinigar, within the disputed Kashmir region. 1948 HCB image, 1950s print.
I received neither support nor compensation for this piece. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 18 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Above/featured: Morning light in San Francisco’s Financial District. Photo, 29 Mar 2025.
The Fujifilm X70 mirrorless fixed-lens prime camera has added a lot to my approach to photography for projects in both domestic and international settings. To satisfy my curiosity about Fujifilm’s analog-film simulation (film-sim) recipes, I’ve provided examples of X70 images with the following recipes:
What follows are images made with the “Portra Sunset” recipe, which Yon Pol describes in their YouTube video.
This recipe is for X-Trans II sensors and the built-in availability of “Classic Chrome”. The settings on my X70 are:
“Classic Chrome” built-in film-sim
Dynamic Range: DR200, but I’ve set this to DR400
Color: +2 (High)
Sharpness: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Highlight: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Shadow: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Noise Reduction: -2 (Low)
White Balance: Daylight; +3 Red, -5 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to 3200
I assigned this recipe for an “all-purpose or daytime” setting as 1 of the 7 camera’s custom presets. The following JPG images are “almost” straight-out-of-the-camera; only minor adjustments to brightness level and a crop to a predefined image size have been applied, with no corrections to colour, contrast, geometric distortion, or rotation.
Just like the Kodachrome 64 recipe, Portra Sunrise uses the Classic Chrome film-sim in-camera setting that produces accentuated reds and an overall orangey-flavour. Blues seem more “subdued”, until foreground objects are illuminated against a clear blue sky. There’s more “diffuse washout” when I point closer to the sun. I imagine I’d get similar results with the Standard Provia film-sim under a clear sky with higher dust- or smoke-content in the atmosphere.
Above/featured: Taunusanlage train station, Frankfurt am Main – 18 Jun 2023.
The Fujifilm X70 mirrorless fixed-lens prime camera has added a lot to my approach to photography for projects in domestic and international scope. To satisfy my curiosity about Fujifilm’s analog-film simulation (film-sim) recipes, I’ve provided examples of X70 images with the following recipes:
Here I show images made with the “Kodak Color Negative” recipe, which Ritchie Roesch describes in Fuji X Weekly:
… The aesthetic that I was hoping to achieve with this recipe was Kodak Portra 400. I don’t believe that I succeeded in faithfully mimicking that (sometimes there’s a similarity); however, it does seem to produce a Kodak-like color negative film look, perhaps more like Ultramax, but not exactly that, either. Whatever it does or doesn’t resemble, I personally really like the aesthetic produced by this recipe …
The recipe is for X-Trans II sensors and the built-in availability of “Classic Chrome”. The settings on my X70 are:
“Classic Chrome” built-in film-sim
Dynamic Range: DR200
Color: +2 (High)
Sharpness: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Highlight: -2 (Soft)
Shadow: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Noise Reduction: -2 (Low)
White Balance: Incandescent; +6 Red, -7 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to 3200
I assigned this recipe for my “indoor” setting as 1 of the 7 camera’s custom presets, but the recipe’s versatility allowed for additional tests at outside locations. The following JPG images are “almost” straight-out-of-the-camera: only minor adjustments to brightness level and a crop to a predefined image size have been applied, with no corrections to colour, contrast, geometric distortion, or rotation. The blue (“cool”) colour-cast is very real, which is especially evident on images made outdoors under sunny conditions.
Above/featured: Gateway Gardens station, Frankfurt am Main – 11 May 2023.
The Fujifilm X70 mirrorless fixed-lens prime camera has added a lot to my approach to photography for projects in both domestic and international scope. To satisfy my curiosity about Fujifilm’s analog-film simulation (film-sim) recipes for varying “looks” and “palettes” applied to images, I’ve provided examples of X70 images with these recipes:
I examine the Monochrome+R film-simulation recipe, which Ritchie Roesch describes in Fuji X Weekly:
… Back when I shot black-and-white film, I usually used a color filter to manipulate the shades of grey, and for landscape photography the Red filter was my most-used option. You cannot use these filters on your Fujifilm camera, but Fujifilm does provide you with three faux filters: +Y, +R, and +G. These mimic the aesthetic of using a Yellow, Red, or Green filter (sort of). In my opinion, +R doesn’t actually replicate the use of a Red filter very well; it’s more like an Orange filter. This recipe is intended to produce a look more similar to a Red filter on black-and-white film, which means that it will darken blues and lighten reds.
White Balance: Fluorescent1 (day); -4 Red, +7 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to 6400
I had assigned this recipe as “general black and white”, with which I experimented in a variety of locations and settings. The following images are almost straight-out-of-the-camera; only adjustments to brightness level and size (2048 by 1365 pix) have been applied, with no corrections to colour, contrast, geometric distortion, or rotation.
Above/featured: Archangel Michael dispatching the devil: St. Michael’s Church, Vienna – 1 Jun 2023.
The Fujifilm X70 mirrorless fixed-lens prime camera has added a lot to my approach to photography for projects in domestic and international scope. To satisfy my curiosity about Fujifilm’s analog-film simulation (film-sim) recipes for varying “looks” and “palettes” applied to images, I’ve provided examples of X70 images with these recipes:
Here I show images made with the “CineStill 800T” recipe, which Ritchie Roesch describes in Fuji X Weekly:
… CineStill 800T is Kodak Vision3 500T motion picture film that’s been modified for use in 35mm film cameras and development using the C-41 process. Because it has the RemJet layer removed, it is more prone to halation. The “T” in the name means tungsten-balanced, which is a fancy way of saying that it is white-balanced for artificial light and not daylight. … Even though the film that this recipe is intended to mimic is Tungsten-balanced, the recipe can still produce interesting pictures in daylight. It’s a versatile recipe, but it definitely delivers the best results in artificial light.
The recipe is for the X-Trans II sensor; the settings on my X70 are:
“Pro Neg Std” built-in film-sim
Dynamic Range: DR400
Color: -1 (Medium-Low)
Sharpness: 0 (Medium)
Highlight: +2 (High)
Shadow: +1 (Medium-High)
Noise Reduction: -2 (Low)
White Balance: 4300K; -3 Red, -3 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to 3200
I assigned this recipe for the “nighttime” setting as 1 of the 7 camera’s custom presets, but I also experimented in daylight at a variety of locations. The following JPG images are “almost” straight-out-of-the-camera; only adjustments to brightness level and a crop to a predefined image size have been applied, with no corrections to colour, contrast, geometric distortion, or rotation. I agree with Roesch’s statement about getting “best results” after dark in artificial light, but I got some interesting images in daylight as well.
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