Street Photography ~ An Example

Henri Cartier-Bresson:

Child holding two bottles of wine. Rue Mouffetard, 1954.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) pioneered the genre of “street photography”, which refers to candid representations of the human condition captured within public places, as in urban settings. He also coined the phrase “the decisive moment” to describe how a photograph can capture an exact moment in time and reveal its true essence, importance, and significance. In the above black and white shot, we see a boy with a self-assured expression on his face carrying two large, shiny bottles of wine. The boy appears quite proud of himself, his delight and energy echoed in the faces of the two girls in the background following him, and it compels us to imagine just how he might have come by those bottles and where he might be headed.

The photographer keeps only the boy centred and in focus so that the eye is immediately drawn there and then pans around to the lighter areas behind him. The photograph is well composed and timed to capture a significant moment and cannot be captured the same way again. Understanding the “story” of this boy and the bottles keeps the viewer engaged, and Cartier-Bresson’s choice to shoot the street angle on a diagonal creates an excitement and a tension that only add to this anticipation of knowing. Energy, movement, and unity are effectively achieved, not just by having all the people in the photograph in motion, but also through the facial expressions and balance of light and shadow.