Henri Cartier-Bresson——”Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.”

 

Characteristics:

  • every picture includes people
  • many utilize the stairs and its bar as a twisted line in the photo
  • capture a moment in daily life
  • black and white
  • movement and five senses

Henri Cartier-Bresson is known to be a humanist photographer influenced by surrealism. His work captures human and little details and subjects from real life. He once stated, “Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.” This demonstrates his attitude towards photography and his way of creating art pieces.

Moreover, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work relates to my 798 collection with the intention of finding and documenting moments of human life with his own style. His work is all about “the decisive moment,” the moment at which the world conveys a meaning that needs to be captured by a photographer. And for my 798 collection, I aim to present these moments in life: a start, a small choice, a turning point, a process,  or a end.

This is one of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s works. It appeals to me because of the blurred biker and the twisted stairs. The blurriness caused by the movement of the biker contrasts with the steadiness of the background. This makes the photo visually appealing while also triggering the audience’s five senses: like I can hear the bike zoom past me. Another technique the photo includes is the use of lines, especially curved lines. For example, the stairs’ handle is twisted from a spiral, as well as the breaks between the street and sidewalk, which gives the image more layers to look at. Furthermore, as many believe Henri Cartier-Bresson’s works are hard to mimic, it holds true for this image. In order to create this, the photographer needs to wait for the correct instance, the biker driving past the stairs, and push the camera. It requires instinct. As Henri Cartier-Bresson said, “You must know with intuition when to click the camera.” And I really like his way of interpreting the subject of photography.