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Fritz Henle Talk

Fritz Henle, photographer talk with his wife and 2 of his children, 2/3, Harry Ransom Center

[This is what I see when I look at this first image on the slide projector: relationship between images, a woman, one hand up resting on her head – her elbow pointing out making her arm into the shape of a triangle or sail, her other arm supporting a round basket on her hip. Behind her, the ocean with a boat whose triangular sail seems to repeat the shape of the woman’s arm, and whose round vessel seems to repeat the the basket on the hip]
Inspired by beauty.
Lived most of life in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, death: 1993.
Meditative photographs, different ways of seeing, not just straight image, never cropped photos, “The gift of being able to see the image right there” About the moment, capturing the moment as its happening, the first spontaneous shots usually the best
Philosophy was “don’t over-shoot”
Precise technique extended into the dark room making the prints, very sensitive to light and timing
Loved black and white and people
[I love this photo too, an ariel view of school boys who look kind of like soldiers on the big slide, all lined up with arms out horizontal to the ground, the lines of soldiers seen diagonally across the picture, what I love though are the shadows of the soldiers, also making diagonal lines, but connected ones, all the shadows are holding hands. This is what I see when I look at this image.]
He was probably looking for beauty all of his life. Freedom and beauty. When he captured the essence of something, he felt like he was capturing beauty, even if the subject wasn’t necessarily a beautiful thing, even if he was shooting devastation.
He loved Mozart his whole life.
His children say he imparted that sense of freedom and being yourself, finding your own self-expression, to them

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