How Henri Cartier-Bresson has changed my life (for the better)
Everyone has an image that has changed his life. This is mine.
Henri Cartier-Bresson is a myth, a man that with his camera, and a sandwich in the pocket, can perform real magic. His approach to the subject is unique: he previews the scene, observes the passage of people into his frame, and next, when is satisfied, shots. All of this while time flows, without considering his presence.
Before approaching Street Photography I didn’t know him. I have to admit that this genre seemed for me, during my first steps as a photographer, a boring “hunting”, an aesthetic game where streets and people are linked to give life a series of images, rich in detail, but lacking in narration. How wrong I was!
My opinion changed a day of Settember (2018). I was navigating to search some street photography images on the Internet and, almost by chance, I sighted this photography: two men, apparently two old friends, take turns to see what’s behind a drapery. In the caption the name of the photographer: Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1932, Bruxelles.
What a shot! There was everything in that image: form, narration, and a mixture of irony and mystery.
Immediately I thought: what had attracted these men? And, how much time did…
