> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Charles Robinson > > Can someone explain to me what it is about that photo which they like? > > I don't mean to sound rude, but for me it's dull as dirty dishwater. > "Slice of life" which is great if you have ever visited there or lived > there and want to remember a feeling, but as a photograph in its own it > leaves me bored. >
The picture in question was taken in 1932 at a time when few people were taking snapshots of that type. Others include Brassai, Kertesz and so on. They were taking advantage of the ease-of-use of the Leica to capture life 'sur le vif', trying to catch the ephemeral and show the poetry of everyday life. Cartier-Bresson's first book, known in English as The Decisive Moment, is called in French Image A La Sauvette. The phrase 'a la sauvette' carries the feeling of an unlicensed street-trader, on the lookout for the cops and ready to pack up and go at any time. This style of picture-taking (and it is taking, 'making' is simply the wrong word for this kind of thing) was quite new at the time. What HCB brought to it was a highly-developed artistic sensibility, a surrealist's taste for the odd, and a quick wit. He had trained in classical composition and had a great knowledge of art and the history of art, which he brought to his photography, but not in the laboured way of people who imitate or reproduce paintings, but in an instinctive way. He described it (or words to this effect) as the recognition in a fraction of a second of the coming together of a composition and some significant action to complete it. In the case of this particular photograph, he has recognised in a fraction of a second the organic form of the staircase, which is like a snail's shell, and one of the 'golden' shapes based on phi. The steps themselves recall Duchamp's Nude Descending A Staircase. It's overlaid with various other geometric forms - the railings, the cobbles, the curve of the kerb etc. to form a highly abstract, cubist composition. A cyclist has whizzed into this and looks as though he has launched from the stairs themselves, or from the railings like a kid who has slid down, and this brings a sort of playfulness to the final shot, which would have been dull and pictorial without it. The cyclist's blur contrasts the speed (and evanescence) of life with the eternal fixedness of the geometry and the imprisoning bars. That is my summary reading of it, but there's nothing privileged about that reading, or about any other. Different people react in different ways and can bring their own readings to any picture. What is probably more important is to be able to discuss their interpretation in a way that says something interesting about the picture - if there is anything worth saying about it. That's why people talk about art appreciation, rather than liking or disliking. You can appreciate it without necessarily liking it. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
