"Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare " by Henri Cartier-Bresson /interpretation/

"Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare " is a photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson . He's known as the father of street photography, the photo reportage. Street Photography is a very tough genre because you're trying to capture something unusual in the gray and monotonous everyday life. To create such a emblematic picture as this is a combination of pure luck and observing skills combined with intuition. While the artist may have days or years to reconsider the composition in his painting, the photographer has only a fraction of a second. This is the reason why I choose this photo because it leaves a deep impression on the ability to capture in such an instant that content and message as deep.

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare by Anthony Breson

The photo was taken in 1932, at the very beginning of his career as a photographer. The photo itself stands out as a photo, but it is actually the very beginning of what we call the "decisive moment." For this photo, Bresson used a 35-mm lady camera. This camera lets him capture images in seconds. In the picture, we see how things are enclosed and seem to be separated from one another, each in its own zone. The space between them is in surplus. There is a flooded area that is at the top of the picture. It was just past the construction site, the building, and the place where it happened. He has been attracted to this particular frame because of some formal things. Bresson loves the geometry, and in this picture we see a combination of many geometric shapes. For example, we see it in the reflection of the man in the foreground or the fence that is repeated, or the houses that seem to stabilize the forms. As there is movement, there is stability.
The other thing that impresses in this photography is the combination of horizontal and vertical lines that make the solid structure within disorder and nebulity. Verticality is a symbol of unconsciousness, of insight into itself. The horizontal line is a symbol of exiting itself - the extraordinaryness. Verticality has a more spiritual and metaphysical character, while the movement in the horizontal is a submergence in the world of things. The balance between the two is the basis of this picture. The photo format is vertical, but it is divided into horizontal bands from variable light to dark. The grate's grilles are vertical, but looking at the fence, they become horizontal as they pass through the entire photo along a horizontal line. There are other horizontal lines, the debris, the ladder, the reflection of the fence, the poster with the inscription "Railowsky". The way horizons and verticals are most united and dramatic is in the figure that jumps. The man is a black silhouette without details in his image, it is abstract. We may get the feeling of a conservative burgher businessman, a description from a book by Hermann Hesse, in a suit and a bomb and jumps into the unknown. He is like all of us - conservative and brave, ordinary and mysterious. It creates the feeling that it is a prototype of humanity. At this point he is seen with his reflection. Just a second later, the squirrel will blur this reflection There is a strong surrealism in the very reflection that is interesting because in street photography surreal elements are rare. The only time that interests this photography is the present, here and now. The other man in front of the fence is also a dark silhouette. It looks more disguised and, unlike the first, is completely and only in the vertical position, without the diagonals of the moving figure. He presents the introverted part, he stands between the man who jumps and the jumping dancer from the poster, he is connected to them through the horizontal fence, so we feel the two aspects of the whole personality that complement each other.
It has arc-shaped elements in the foreground that repeat itself as a form and backwards, like a plaque with the dancer. It jumps, just like the person in the foreground. It creates the feeling that art reflects life or vice versa. There is some balance between this movement and the stabilizing forms at the same time. This is the idea of ??repetition when composing geometrical works, human figures that reflect a structure. The special thing about the dancer from the plaque is that the jump does it in the opposite direction.

In the silhouette of the foreground, barely noticeable, Bresson makes us see in this leap the attitude of the man to the surrounding world. The self is in unlimited relation to reality and this is the relationship that gives it meaning and dignity. The man in the foreground is both at the same time. There is a strong drama at the point where his heel almost touches the surface of the water, which is still calm and unaffected by it. The shape of the "V" in its unfolded step is repeated in its image. "V" presents a triangle that looks upwards. This is the spiritual beginning of man, whereas the reflection is reversed, which shows his inferior powers, which are of a material nature, his instinctive nature, the unconscious. These two worlds are presented momentarily before colliding with each other. The ladder has fallen as if he has already climbed the stairs, and then follows the leap in the unknown, where the dark and light side of the man merges. It is most likely a process of individualization, of the whole personality.
In conclusion, in my opinion, the main idea of the photo is the topic of the conflict between personality and the world, whether the person is connected to the world or is self-sufficient for himself.

It will be very interesting to me to read what you thing about this photograph. I will be glad to know how you perceived it.s to write her memoirs.