Southern Exposures

Shot in color with live sound, the films are collections of candid observations, free of narration or interpretive commentary. Cartier-Bresson chose the subjects: California, home to Leisure World and Esalen, surfing, and opponents and proponents of the Vietnam War; and Mississippi, home to the faded glory of the Confederacy, racist whites and progressive blacks, and atavistic religion. Both films portray some circumstances quite sympathetically, but they leave an overall impression of an alien culture that is fascinating largely because it is appalling. After a screening of Southern Exposures in Paris in 1971, Cartier-Bresson told a journalist, “For me, photography is sketching. On the other hand, to make a film is to make a speech.”