Exercise 5.3 Project 2
Look again at Bresson’s image ‘Gare Saint-Lazare’ to see if there is a single element that the eye returns to again and again.
what can I say about the information contained within this pivotal point in the frame?
This picture by Bresson ( a chance photo as he says himself) holds a certain fascination for photographers. Is it simply because it is a photo by Bresson or does it hold the viewer because of its composition. Sometimes I have to forget the name of the photographer to try to appreciate the image without that influence. For me the returning eye moves to the foot and the inverted and normal triangle between the legs. The foot landing but in space about to touch down, a millisecond from being a different shot, is what captures most, my attention. What information is in this?
The information in the image is dynamic, moving and sometimes mysterious as we don’t see the face. In fact we only have a silhouette of the ‘runner’ which always leaves a question. Who is he and why is he running?
The image for me is tied up with the photographer and what I know of him. If it was not an image by Cartier Bresson and I had not internalized an idea of who he was and the kind of photography he produced it might strike me differently. However, I am struck at how the “Internal and external contexts” from Barret’s ideas are beginning to make more sense in these contexts. That there is a natural comparison and evaluation working on me when I look at any photo. The photo contains a certain beauty and dynamism which I can appreciate.
- Image 1. Bresson C. (1932) Gare Saint-lazare, found at: http://www.arte.it/calendario-arte/milano/mostra-henri-cartier-bresson-fotografo-31689 [accessed March 2017]
OCA log level 1 Photography 