Dissertation Draft

Matthew Davis, Dissertation, Ba Applied Media

Matthew Davis Dissertation BA Applied Media

Henri Cartier-Bressons “Behind Saint-Lazare Station” - Paris 1932 I believe is one of the greatest examples of The Decisive Moment. How does this image represent Bresson’s approach to photography?

The decisive moment is a slice of time. It is capturing an image at the exact time offering the maximum involvement for the audience. It can carry weight-if something is just about to happen, or if something has just happened. The questions arise by the observer-what if? etc. Bresson termed it as “The decisive moment, it is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression.” It is something photographers are always attempting to catch in there photographs. The ability to catch a sequence of events, in one frozen slice of time and space. This phenomenon relates to all manner of arts. Musician Pablo Beschi agrees with the theory, and comments “something goes off, something is released, like with the camera. Something is released which will remain unique it’s in that moment of time never to be repeated that’s it!” In playing and teaching the cello, he tries to educate that there is no set way to play. You can all add a little bit of you, and evolve the music to a higher level-both philosophically, mentally and audibly.

In an interview with Bresson, eh is asked what does the eye seek, Bresson’s answer was” I don't know, a question mark?” The decisive moment as I stated tried to leave a weighted picture, and the questions it left unanswered.....what if? Perhaps this is how Bresson managed to achieve capturing such images.

Henri Carter-Bresson is undoubtably one of the greatest photographers of all time. A master of photography, a pioneer visionary. His dream can be illustrated by an English philosopher Francis Bacon(1561-1626), and Bresson quotes it as what he tries to achieve. " The contemplation of things as they are, without error or confusion without substitution or imposture is, in its self, a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention."

I have been researching several articles websites and documentaries about photography and in particular Cartier Bresson’s ideal of the decisive moment within a photograph. I want to see, why today in the 21st-century with millions of photographers, and millions of different imaging devices, why Cartier-Bressons uber-famous photograph “Behind SaintLazare Station” - Paris 1932 displays the decisive moment better than any other photograph. In my mind its is the greatest photograph of all time. Bresson had a unique recipe in which he followed in order to GATHER his photographs, but are these instructions that anyone could follow? Or is it Bresson’s self, Bresson’s emotion and relationship with the subjects that gave him the ability to capture what no one else has, or to my mind is capable of?

Henri Cartier Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie on August 22nd 1908. Bresson was born to a bourgeois family and lived in the centre of Paris. His parents were wealthy being land owners, cotton merchants and textile manufacturers. Bresson spent some of his formative years living in Normandy, and as a young child he enjoyed drawing and sketching. His parents being wealthy were able to afford him financial support in his interests, so much so that his interest was spurred on by no one other than himself. His parents purchased him a box brownie camera to him when he was young-without specific

Matthew Davis, Dissertation, Ba Applied Media

guidance, and although this was an interest it was not his passion. The passion was born later in his life after he had done some traveling.

Bresson was introduced to oil painting by one of his uncles. Uncle Louis was a gifted painter, but the lessons abruptly stopped after his death during World War 1.However Bressons love of art continued, and when Bresson was 20 he attended art school and was taught by modern artist André Lhote. Bresson also studied under the watchful eye of portrait painter Jacques Émile Blanche. Studying portraiture he learnt the complexities of composition and the method in which viewers read images. During his studies Bresson read many philosophical works by masters these included to mention but a few Freud, Marx, Dostoevsky and Joyce. These works are heavyweights in the literary and philisophical worlds and to read several of these illustrates that Bresson was certainly a thinker. A lover, not a fighter. Bressons works are all influenced by these and is own philisophical musings. In all of his work you can almost hear his thoughts. These musings and thoughs I believe developed and evolved through Bressons life, and the experiences he held. In his life he seemed to of experienced everything, from life to death, from prison to war, from Africa to Paris. He seemed to live to experience diversity. Diversity I believe is something that will round a person and create something special.

In 1928 Bresson studied at the University of Cambridge-This is widely considered to be one of the best if not the best university in the world. He studied English, literature and art.

This continuing his love for passion, beauty, geometry and contemplation.

In 1930 Bresson carried out his mandatory service in the French army, "And I had quite a hard time of it, too, because I was toting Joyce under my arm and a Lebel rifle on my shoulder."(Joyce being a philosopher). To this point we can establish that Bresson was interested in art, philosophy, poetry, life and obviously being a young man girls. A man with a passion for thinking and musing. A man that has a poetry book in one hand, and a gun in the other whilst on military maneuverers. This can only be seen as Love and hate? Peace and war? Two opposites linked by one mind?

In 1931 after a close friend of Bresson killed himself, and a romantic relationship ended he was broken hearted, and decided to continue within the army, and travel to Africa, this was an escape from the loss of those he loved. He lived in French speaking Africa for a few years, hunting animals and selling to local villagers. Hunting and stalking his prey was something that he learnt in Africa and used every time he went out with the camera after that.”The act of photography is like going on a hunt in which photographer and camera merge into one indivisible function.” Flusser p39

Whilst in Africa he contracted Black-water Fever, a rare strain of Malaria, and was returned to France to convalesce. During his recuperation Bresson came across a photograph.

Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika by a Hungarian photo-journalist Martin Munkasci. This image stirred Bresson, so much so that it changed the course of his life. This image demonstrated clearly to Bresson that there was technology available to draw a scene within a fraction of a second. Bresson commented IT IS DRAWING ETC. The elegance, so poetic. It was the ability to capture time. To freeze an event, and then to hold that event indefinitely at the point of perception.

By this time Bresson had all but resigned from painting-he did not enjoy the rigorous structures with which a painting must be considered, and created. He was annoyed by all the rules, and regulations that were implied, and associated within a piece of art created

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on canvas, and this is why this image struck him. Elegant, beautiful and open to interpretation.

When Bresson returned to Marseille in around 1931/1932 he purchased a very early Leica. A camera that revolutionized photography. This camera used 35 mm film, and had exquisite lenses. Lenses that were able to capture sharp images even in low light, that coupled with legendary German build quality created an incredible camera. Bresson purchased this, along with a standard 50mm lens(standard). The 50mm lens was incredibly important, as it was the most equivocal to the human eye, and this is why he is widely recognized as coining the phrase that a camera was “an extension of his eye”.

Henri Cartier Bresson from this point carried a camera wherever he went. Bresson used only Leicas,

In 1932 Bresson was walking beside Lazzare station in Paris. In the early evening he took a quick snap with his camera. A snap that was a struggle to take. Bresson saw a scene he struggled to get his camera through some railings blocking the way, but even so still snapped it. Railings in the shot or not. This photo taken was one of only 2 images Bresson took in his life that he cropped, and indeed this image was soon to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest photo-documentary image of all time. This image has been key to describing, and illustrating the theory of the “Decisive moment”

in 1939 as war broke out Bresson joined up with the French army once agin and this time joined the film and Photographic unit. His duties were to include such things as photographing artillery fire, road bombardments and troop movements. In 1940 with fear of being captured he buried his beloved Leica, and a few weeks later was captured, and forced to do manual labour in a POW camp. He was incarcerated for 35 months in that time two of his escape attempts failed, however the third attempt was successful. He managed to hide in a barn, retrieve his beloved camera and eventually managed to get papers to allow him to travel in France. Once in France he worked in the underground resistance helping others to escape the nazi grasps. A year later the American film office contacted Bresson, and wanted him to make a documentary about prisoners of war.

In 1947 after the dust had settled after WWII Bresson had his first book published “The Photographs of Henri Cartier Bresson” this book launch was coincided with an impromptu exhibition at the Museum of modern Art in New York.XXXXXXXX

In roughly the same period Bresson co-founded the legendary photographic agency Magnum."Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually." – Henri Cartier-Bresson .Magnum was set up with a collection of eminent photographers from that era. Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour were the founders. They were young men and the casual attitude that the cooperation was founded meant that the exact date is unknown. It is thought to be in the April of 1947-in New York. The newly formed cooperative agency believed in truth, and is to this day the most prestigious photo agency in the world. It is run by its members, and new members are few and far between, partly due to a several year application process.

Magnum believed in no cropping of images-one of Bresson’s truths and values CR interview 16:51 C.Rose: You never cropped any of your photographs.

Bresson:no, none.

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C.Rose: You would not allow it.

Bresson: Its a question of a line.......If you shoot properly when its there.........

This interview was recorded in 200, towards the end of Bressons life, and is still adament that cropping is not allowed. Purity and dedication to his cause shines through, and allows a slight insight into Bresson’s brain, and his mind set.

The other value was to get close as Capa famously said "If your pictures aren't good enough you may be too close rather than not close enough,” Robert Capa.????

In 1952 Bresson had his book “la sauvette” published. This was translated into the english copy “The decisive moment” This beautiful book had a cover painted by his close friend Matisse, and to this day is incredibly rare and exponentially expensive with copies online starting at £450. This book with a forward composed and written by Bresson was his recipe,equation or magic on how he take photographs. His incredible skill, style and awareness has produced some of this centuries most important images . The forward talks the reader through his thinking, and onto how he manages to capture such exquisite photographs.

Bresson travelled the world with his much loved Leica, and photographed many, many topical subjects. He has had exhibitions around the world, and is considered by many people to be one of the founding fathers of photography.

Bresson died in Montjustin on August 3rd 2004 aged 95. The legacies he leaves to the world are several. The first of course being his photographs. The second Magnum. The third his indefinable ability to capture images other people simply could not capture.

Bresson gave few interviews in his life, they all illustrated him as a humble, passionate man.

In one of his final interviews in 2004 with an American journalist Charlie Rose, Bresson had turned 360degrees and no longer took photographs. He simply sketched. The interviewee spoke to Bresson about how incredibly famous he was, and how he was one of the greatest photographers of all time. Bresson didn’t enjoy this title and kept repeating” I do not think I am a photographer” (45min 43sec) The interviewee badgered an elderly Bresson repeating that he is a great photographer (21min 45sec) Charlie Rose: “This says it” gesturing to the photos on the wall Bresson: “No” Charlie Rose: “THIS says it. It was what you were born to do!”

Bresson: “I don’t know”.

This was already after an early point in the interview where Bresson denounced he was a photographer.

Bresson: I don't consider myself a photographer!(8:17) Charlie Rose:Do you see yourself as an artist?

Bresson:I am simply a human being!

This is a beautiful example of Bresson’s philosophy, and humbleness. He simply is, he doesn’t want to be branded, he does want fame-he simply wants to live and do what he loves. The French philosopher René Descartes sums up-I believe Bresson’s demeanor

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“Cogito Ergo Sum”-roughly translated “I think therefore I am”XXXXX. Elegant, eloquent quintessentially French, and fundamentally Bresson. In each interview, and whenever questioned, Bresson always took time to think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZSZLzGNPBQ

Bresson had a box brownie as a child, and enjoyed shooting photographs from an early age, of people, friends family. He later acquired a 3x4 inch view camera, but his true love and passion came from his Leica.

The Leica he purchased in around 1931/2 and it was a model I (or model A as many referred to it) The camera was a 35mm rangefinder camera, it used interchangeable lenses, built with legendary german engineering, and today is recognized as one of the greatest names in cameras. Bresson loved the way the small form fitted into his hand, the way the shutter was almost silent, and the way it could be relatively unobtrusive. To further remove its obtrusiveness Bresson painted all the shiny silver bits on the camera with matt black paint. This he did to enable blending, to conceal his presence in a situation(or the presence of his camera), and also to stop the subjects realization that there is a camera.

Bresson believed once a camera was observed people, posture, faces and body language all changed. Bresson was a purist, and he was aware that if a camera was present in the vicinity, then humans simply become dolls, or mannequins. Fake smiles, uncomfortable postures, and people void of humanity and raw emotion. “It happens in less than a fraction of a second you must feel it intuitively, sensitivity, intuition...a sense of geometry . Nothing else. You have it or you don't” CR INTERVIEW 21:21

Bresson only ever shot images with a 50mm lens. 50mm lenses are the closest lens ratio to the human eye, and Bresson loved this view. It was a natural view,( This natural view relates to the golden proportion once again) and using this lens on a Leica meant that while one eye was looking through the view finder the other eye could be naturally observing the subject, and as it was a 50mm lens, the view was in stereo, so a very natural viewing experience. The 50 mm lens by Leica was incredibly sharp, and incredibly good in low light. This fast lens with a very low f-stop enabled Bresson to tread the sidewalks of paris, New-york, London etc in the early sunrise, and dim sunset hours and still be able to snap a great well exposed sharp image.

Bresson preferred black and white film. He did experiment with a few rolls of colour, but didn't enjoy it, or like the results. Bresson was a purist and believed nothing was closer to the truth than black and white photograph. Bresson thought it was more honest, and allowed for a much more natural image. Bresson did state in his book the decisive moment which was published in 1952 “we are only in the infancy of colour photography.” In the 50’s colour film was available, but it was slow, under saturated, colour casted and not incredibly sharp. We can therefore say perhaps the technology wasn't available, or perhaps as Bresson states “personally, I’m half afraid that this complex new element may tend to prejudice the achievement of the life and movement which is often caught by black-andwhite”. Bresson was a forefather of photography, and started photographing in the early 20th century, along with other greats. Black and white was all that was available then, and his experience and specific technical knowledge kept Bresson true to his love or fondness of black and white photography.” Colour photographs are on a higher level of abstraction

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than black-and-white ones.” Black-and-white photographs are more concrete and in this sense more true” p44 Towards a philosophy of photography Vilém Flusser)). Flusser stated this in his writings in 1983, and I think his theory has direct links with Bresson and his experience of photographing in black and white, and indeed colour. The idea that within black-and-white photography images are created with light and frozen with silver nitrate.

This is a relatively basic science. The variables being chemical, or paper. Colour photography has much more complicated chemistry involved. To achieve the specific colour, specific contrast at the exact same time was an incredibly complicated science.

Bresson’s trials and his eventual results were not that impressive, and not that accurate.

Bresson’s search for the truth and realism was lost within the infinite shades of red green and blue, or in a photographers term, cyan, magenta black and yellow.

Bresson only ever used natural/available light. Never ever did he use flash, as to use a flash was to push/announce yourself to the scene "It is essential, therefore, to approach the subject on tiptoe - even if the subject is a still-life. A velvet hand, a hawk's eye - these we should all have. ... And no photographs taken with the aid of flash-light either, if only out of respect of the natural light - even when there isn't any of it. Unless a photographer observes such conditions as these, he may become an intolerably aggressive character.”

Roughly translated I believe to mean, once the photographer controls the situation, the honesty and anonymity will die, and the resulting image will be nothing like the scene. The aggressive character can simply be illustrated as a wedding photographer-bossing people around, looking for the “desired” image.t Henri

Cartier-Bresson: The

Mind's Eye

Bresson had a very rich life, full of experiences. He was a born to a wealthy family and had every privilege that this entailed. He joined the army and spent years at war. He was captured after 2 failed escapes, but his third escape was to freedom. Bresson was a human and from what I have understand he was very in touch with his emotions. His life had a deep collection of different emotions. Love and death being the heavyweights.

Bresson was close friends with some of the greatest artists of all time, people like Matisse, Renoir,Duchamp etc. He lived the Parisian dream at a time when Paris was the articstic and cultural epicentre of the world. Bresson smoked, drank and laughed with some of the greatest creative minds of all time.This alone would make our heads spin.The sheer volumne of the people he spoke with and chatted to, and indeed loved shaped his mind.

Bresson had a very specific way of taking his photographs, and he became legendary in his execution of these plans-religiously.

His plans always started with an unusual superstition to initiate a new lens. This was done by photographing ducks in urban parks near where he was living. The pictures he took of ducks were never published, but it is something that Bresson did religiously with every new lens/camera he purchased. To baptise each lens I believe meant to Bresson safe, reliable and happy shooting.

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Bresson was an incredibly humble man. A gentleman, a genuine man, and a man confident with his shyness. Considered by a large proportion of the photographic community ”He's the greatest photographer of the 20th-century, he is like what Tolstoy was to literature"Richard Avedon (interview charlie rose 2004) To be considered as one of the greatest photographers of all time, Bresson repeatedly denies being a photographer.” I don't consider myself a photographer- I simply use a camera”.Bresson’s life experiences coupled with his reading of philosophy created a very unassuming individual. He refused many many interviews, and very few interviews he held would he want to talk about photography- He stated he would much rather have a conversation, with no cameras and no sound recorders or note books present. On one such occasion Ian Phillips a writer for a Parisiane magazine wrote “He doesn't want to talk about photography, even in connection with his retrospective at the Maison Européenne de la Photo” (((http://www.parisvoice.com/-archives-97-86/264-conversationwith-henri-cartier-bresson))). On an interview with a well known American journalist Charlie Rose, Charlie is looking at one of Bresson’s photographs, and states-You are an amazing photographer-it was your destiny, to which Bresson replies “no” "This says it" "no" "THIS says it. It was what you were born to do" "I don't know"

Bresson was incredibly humble. It seems he hated the limelight. He talked about fame, and how it alters a person, how it goes to ones head “as a photographer, to be famous is dangerous” I believe this is all connected to Bresson’s incredible idea of empathy and interaction within a scene. To be famous, and known as a celebrity means no one will treat you as an equal, and will always assume, or criticize you, and perhaps more importantly so Bresson could no longer hide in the shadows with his camera, if indeed he was a celebrity-A face that everyone knew.

To be relatively anonymous gave Bresson the space he required to construct a scene in his head. Bresson was an incredibly skilled craftsman, artist, perfectionist, and at times magician. He had the ability to get close to people, to groups of people without them noticing him. His character, and ability to be deemed invisible, and the fact that no one could see him taking photos allowed him to capture some of the greatest photographs of all time. His camera was black. He was a master at making his camera disappear. Many people have commented on his skill, but one particular image he took of people mourning shows just how close Bresson was able to get. His photograph at the funeral of a film star showed incredible vulnerability of the mourners. For Bresson to be able to to get this close, and capture something so personal was/still is awe-inspiring. The raw emotion in the photograph, the pureness of it can only be described as poetry. The mourners crying, upset, beside themselves, such sadness in their eyes. Bresson did not capture this he turned the sadness, upset and desolation to absolute joy. The photo is beautiful, it is almost as if you can see these peoples soles, the way they mourn something so deliberately and fully, the raw emotion can only ever be seen as beautiful. The memories these people hold for the deceased shows how much joy they bought to these people.

This image I believe quantifies bresson, and sums him up totally. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this image could fill libraries with songs, poetry, beauty, philosophy

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and emotion etc. He captured something incredibly personal, potentially grey and depressive and turned it into something truly amazing, sheer unabashed emotion, in its crudest, rawest form.

In all the interviews with Bresson that I have watched, read and listened to- he always comes across as a genuine, sophisticated, contemplative person. Very polite, relatively shy, but with a twinkle in his eye. A smile as he remembers, a mind that remains incredibly sharp and focused. He also takes time to remember, and is certainly in no rush to answer his interviewee-or even perhaps his audience. His memories are etched into his lined, weathered face, his emotion almost takes is almost physical. The great sadness and fear he has felt, lived by and known keeps his eye astute and ready, the same eye of the young lad who sold his fancy flute to be able to afford to take girls out. Bresson’s life appears to of been led with a full spectrum of living, from the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows.

His life of philosophy, of art, of war, of travel has centered him. He knows what he likes, and appreciates form. In all of his interviews he talks about geometry, and the golden rule.

The golden ratio or divine proportion is an age old equation sums up beauty. It can be found in all things in nature, from a rose, to an eye. The human body is steeped in this divine proportion. An example would be-take a finger-measure it, from knuckle to tip, then from joint in finger to tip. Divide one by the other, and the resulting number will be close to 1.618. This number has been agreed upon for thousands of years by scholars and academics as the key to beauty. Leonardo Davinci was aware of it, and illustrated it in his works The mona lisa and The Vitruvian Man are prime examples. The greeks were aware and keen to incorporate the golden proportion into their houses and palaces. It is a number that is meant to appeal to the human eye, pleasing to see. The golden proportion has scores of writings referring to them and why it creates beauty. I struggle to get my head around the fact that art can be decoded into mathematics. I believe art is organic, perhaps this golden proportion is pleasing to the eye, and this pleased sensation is what Bresson continues to talk about in his varies interviews. Bresson, it appears, is able to see what is appealing to the eye, and he records it. He understands time and space and captures the moment.

Bresson: (17:48) It's all geometry, the divine proportion! Intuitively I know how it sits. But that's all I can say" Bresson: It's the physical rhythm (17.59) 1.618, 3.1416. The golden number, we know how it sits, A compass will tell you, but its in the eye.

Behind Lazzare Station 1932

This image was taken(captured) by Bresson in 1932. It maybe considered ordinary and common place in todays image saturated culture, however at the time it was a fresh and exciting image, this particular image of Bresson’s is steeped in codes, conventions, and meanings. (Willhelm FLUSSER REF) The image was shot in Paris, behind Lazzare station, of a temporary building site.

Today we are a society of analyzers, of people grinding things down to the most basic of levels to enable us to make sense of what we are looking at. Photography is a prime example of this. In the 30’s photography was still relatively a professional craft, and in that era a photographers work generally consisted of portraits, and thus images were not susceptible to the same scrutinisatio-simply due to the fact-people wanted pictures of friends and families. They did not question the photograph-they accepted it.

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Bresson’s Behind Lazzare Station was at this time considered revolutionary. It moved away from the static studio based photography, and sired photo documentary. When Bresson unveiled his Behind Lazzare Station in 1932-the image was considered on a much more ‘face value’ approach.It is only in the last 30 years that we as a society have started to question everything. The codes, and conventions within this image have only being questioned in relatively recent years. Thus upon deconstruction, we can reevaluate our own opinions, and choose to accept its greatness.

This particular image was one of only two images that Bresson captured and cropped in his life. Cropping was a massive no no in Bresson’s eyes,(QUOTE CROP IN FRAME) however he justified this as he took the photograph from behind railings without a clear view.

Watching "L'Amour Tout Court" (Just Plain Love) directed by Raphael O'Bryne, Bressons speaks of capturing the image, and then you have a clear insight into his poetic, and philisophical mind.

16. 20mins in http://www.petapixel.com/2012/06/26/just-plain-love-a-documentary-filmabout-henri-cartier-bresson/

Bresson:"I shot this one through In between planks I slipped the camera through but I couldn't see, That's why it's a bit blurry the planks were like this, so only the lens went through. I couldn't see a thing through the viewfinder. " Interviewee:"You couldn't see the man leaping?"

Bresson:"No" 16min 58 Interviewee:"That was lucky" Bresson:"It's always luck. It's luck that matters. You have to be receptive that's all" Bresson:(17:21) "It's a matter of chance, if you want it, you get nothing"

Having watched This interview is incredible. One of the most iconic images of all time, an image that sums up “decisive moment” so fundamentally was luck? And this image was one of only two images that Bresson cropped in his entire life. So this image initself is breaking boundaries, and evolving. Was it sheer accident, or luck. Repeating bresson "It's always luck. It's luck that matters. You have to be receptive that's all".

The image itself

The camera would not fit through the railings, so the image was not quite as Bresson had envisaged . (SEE PIC) Bresson states that he saw the scene whilst walking down the street, and quickly snapped it. The light was low, and a rail obscured part of the image, but

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this aside Bresson still captured something incredible, he chose to “click” the shutter and pause/stop time.

The image is of a building site at a railway station in Paris, of a man jumping over a puddle. The area appears to be high up, as you can see rooftops in the background. The building site appears to very much signify a lower class/standard to which Bresson was bought up in, and the hints of manual labour pointed to by a wheel barrow, and the worker taking a cigarette break?

The rooftops in the foreground and background stabilize the picture. The picture has a lot of movement in it, with the few-soon to be more ripples in the water, along with the movement of the man. The Rooftops stabilize this image, and give a great balance. This is the sort of composition that was seen in the renaissance. There is also a considerable amount of geometry within the image, the repeating and reflecting lines of the fences, the triangular structures of the buildings in the foreground, the perpendicular slats on the jumping board, the disregarded rings in the water, and finally the geometry of the man. The leaping man has a very similar pose to Davinci’s Vitruvian Man. The Vitruvian man is regarded as one of the key example of the golden proportion. Geometry was something close to Bresson, and this image shows it by the cart load.

The first great thing about this image obviously is the man jumping. His heel is about to splash down into the puddle, and this would change the serenity and dynamic of the image irrevocably. The next thing is the repetition. There are countless reoccurring themes. The most obvious is the jumping mans reflection. All but touching, except for a hundredth of a millimeter, and a nano second in time. The man jumping is then replicated by the billboards of Railowsky. A circus or acrobat. His posters depict a man leaping with very similar albeit mirrored posture. There is then the second figure peering out, he is also reflected in the water. Then there is the discarded barrel ribbons in the water. These arcs are repeated in the billboard again.

Then we look at the connotations within the image. The board the man is jumping off could be construed as a railway line-this ties again with the ‘Railowsky’ banner-similar to the English ‘railway’. We can look at the board as a piece of apparatus that a gymnast may use in the circus, leaping off it. The bits of old barrel discarded in the water, there arcs could also seem as if they are the juggling rings circus people may use to entertain. These rings are then repeated in the few ripples around the board, this also reinforcing the repetition, and the deliberate reinforcement of the geometry within the image, but also signify the ripples that are to be created when the leaping mans heel hits the water.

This is a stunning image, and it is recognized around the globe by photographers as being a key, and a total illustration of the decisive moment.

Technology and its role.

Technology, and its forging evolution may of had a significant effect on the images Bresson created. He was photographing in a time when photo-documentary was only just available really due to the Leica’. Leica’s offered a revolution with fast lenses, and portable, reliable equipment. The Leica enabled photographers to leave the tripod, the heavy wooden box, and the black satin cloth at home, and it enabled photographers to be less restricted and restrained. Scenes no longer required a lengthy pre shot prepping, with one position to shoot from, now they simply had to be there. A photograph could be snapped in a fraction

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of a second. This available movement these cameras afforded people was a revolution.

Bresson’s decision to utilize a Leica was a great choice. The Leica lenses are legendary for their incredible sharpness, even in relative low light. The lenses the Leica offered, and still offer today are exceptional. These spectacular lenses coupled with a bullet proof precision engineered camera body enabled the photographer to expose scenes in tenths,hundredths and even thousandths of a second. Leica's lenses are still valued today. Used standard lenses sell on Ebay regularly in excess of £3000, with fast rarer examples regularly hitting £20000+. The Leica was a massive revolution, and an incredible advancement. It changed not only the way photographs were taken, but what was photographed as well.

Today the technology surges ever forward. The latest photographic technology is incredible, it defies what we think is possible, and would absolutely blow away the photographers of yesteryears minds. We have cameras available on the market now that not only capture a scene, but captures an entire depth of field. The viewer then chooses what to have in focus after the photo has been captured. The process/camera is called a Lytro camera. Relatively inexpensive compared to our consumer society and how much we spend on technology. We have sports cameras that can capture 20 frames a second, portable video cameras that record a staggering 120 frames a second, there are digital cameras in production that will be using a 32 GIGA pixel sensor (that is a staggering 3200000000 pixels. We have scientific cameras that are able to capture 6.1 million images in one second (serial time-encoded amplified microscopy-STEAM)although this is not consumer available, it does exist, and one thing we can guarantee and predict is that cameras are evolving every day. There are more and more mega pixels on cameras, there are more cameras. HD tv is not good enough quality so now there is UD(ultra definition) which is 4 times higher quality than HD 1080p. One day this technology will be common places, it is cutting edge yes, but soon it will be expected.

My point being now a-days it is easy to take a photo. Everybody and their children in civilized society have digital cameras. It is estimated that 80billion images will be created this year alone(BBC DVD), the majority inevitably are digital. These terra-bites of images, most of them sadly will be destined for a dusty hard drive, many never to be looked at again.

Photography is around us everywhere, in the UK we have more cctv cameras than any other country. We all have multiple cameras, our phones, out laptops, our tablets, our ‘proper cameras’, cars have cameras in them-some with loads of them to assist reversing etc, watches, sunglasses. Cameras are abundant, and we all are ever recording, ever snapping away. The correlation will only ever incline, more and more images are taken. At the average football match, an average sports photographer will shoot 300+images-This is one photographer at one football match! Images are surrounding us enveloping us, and always the camera watches us, ever the tool it watches.

This is in direct comparison to Bresson’s era. Bresson was one of the early adopters of the 35mm format, buying into the dream with his Leica.

The 35mm film format opened even more possibilities. One small canister at a tiny costtoday perhaps £4 for a roll enabled up to 36 ultra high quality images. Quality that has not caught up with digital technology yet. So we could then say, a £4 roll of film has 100gb of storage. That is incredible, how on earth could you get something so cheap, that offers unparalleled quality?The 35 mm film had an awful lot to offer. There was no need for a darkroom when changing films,there was no cumbersome changing of light sensitive plates, time wasn’t wasted setting up the camera on a tripod. The 35mm film camera

Matthew Davis, Dissertation, Ba Applied Media

streamlined a photographers dynamic, and allowed them to take relative control of the scene.

Other photographers of his era dropped the formality of larger cumbersome cameras and chose to adopt this new compact solution. As a photographer armed with a 35mm Leica or equivalent, and ten rolls of film (which incidentally would comfortably fit in a couple of pockets). He or she could easily shoot 300 images without breaking a sweat. The photographer ten years prior to that, would maybe take a case with 8 light sensetive slides, in a heavy wooden box, a very heavy camera, an even heavier tripod,a changing cloth etc.

They would be sweating and i would imagine exhausted after taking 8 images. Therefore we can surmise that with this new technology came a flurry of images. The photographers day leaping from 8 images an outing to 300. All of a sudden there were photographers and photographs emerging at tremendous pace. This era could be likened to our own digital age. The flurry of images since digital technology evolution has sky rocketed.

Today everything is being shared instantly through social networking, and portable “smart” devices. What we eat, what we drink, our view, our hair, a man falling over, a dog wearing a jacket. Everything is being captured by everyone, and then instantly shared with everyone.

Technology allows us to capture infinite depth of field, and it would appear infinite panoramas/photos. The skyline of Dubai is at this time the largest digital photo in the world. This 45giga pixel image has been created and painstakingly sewn together to create the largest digital image ever.http://gigapan.com/gigapans/48492. The detail is amazing, and it is documenting Dubai beautifully. It could be seen as twenty years of Aget’s photographs in and around Paris, documenting the daily life of the city, and yet this image captures one day completely. This technology is amazing and helps capture more and more, and yet, ‘behind Lazzare station’ still captures something more fundamentally brilliant. I argue that Bresson’s image is the greatest photo documentary image of all time, and although there are other amazing images out there, nothing seems to touch that leaping man, not with all the incredible technology available to us.

SIMILAR DECISIVE IMAGES

Robert Capa, a close friend of Bresson, and co-founder of Magnum was a photojournalist.. Famous for his quote "If your pictures aren't good enough you may be too close rather than not close enough”. Capa travelled the world hunting for the perfect image. The image of his that comes closest to that decisive moment is ‘Death of a loyalist soldier’ An image from the Spanish civil war shot in 1936. The image depicts a soldier who has just been shot, and is falling to the ground. The mans arms are out, like a crucifix, as you can see him stumbling to the floor. This image instantly elevated Capa’s name around the globe, and is now renowned for being the greatest image of the Spanish civil war. The image is in black and white, and the grey hills stand out against the white shirt of the soldier. The soldiers shadow echoes, and emphasizes the motion that the man is soon to make. Tenth of a second later, and the man would be on the floor lifeless. An incredible, and indeed amazing example of the decisive moment, from the same era, and a close personal friend of Bresson’s.This seems incredible, did Bresson and Capa have something special? Were they savvy to something extra?

Capa was an explorer and travelled the world, Bresson always commented that Capa was an adventurerXXXQUOTE PENDINGXXX. Capa was a renowned war photographer, and captured some incredibly poignant, dramatic images. Capa was a victim of war and was killed after stepping on a landmine. Bresson and Capa were subjected to war, and experienced it first hand. They sore the total destructiveness, and inhumanity that occurred. Bresson lived considerably longer than Capa and was very anti war. I think like

Matthew Davis, Dissertation, Ba Applied Media

all of us, he was seeking meaning, or looking for answers. His consumption of philosophy I believe enabled him to come to terms, perhaps with what he was witness to, perhaps for his own actions, this we will never know. War is indeed futile” Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore... prove ultimately futile” Pope John Paul II . Futility is a contemplative state, and something I think perhaps Bresson struggled against. Perhaps the war made him dig deeper into his inner self, seeking meaning......

Summary.

Looking back through the photo journalists, and decisive moments over the last century it is clear that Bresson’s image ‘Behind Lazzare station’ stands head and shoulders above all other photo documentary images.It captures so much more than simply a man and a puddle. It signifies the very modernity of photography, the height of science and engineering, and the pedantic artists eye. It is special.

Other photographers have come very close, and have truly captured some amazing scenes, slices of time frozen for all eternity on the emulsion of photographic paper.

Bresson had something that no one else did, his ‘Joie de vivre’, his life of dealing with war, of friends, of death, of marriage, of watching, of waiting. He had something that no one else had. He was the perfect photographer. Technology today is helping us to capture bigger, better photographs.The new Canon 1DC is capable of capturing 25 fps, and these stills are able to be printed individually as high quality photographs.This fine complete photographing of a scene has created the ability to capture micro emotions. This micro emotion is he capturing of very slight changes in a scene, in a models eye, or expressionincredibly slightly, but enough to give an image a lift, a certain something....Micro emotion, is this what Bresson could see?

Philosophizing, researching and contemplating Bresson, and Behind Lazzare Station I conclude that this image was created by luck. Luck. I also think that no one else could of captured it. Bresson was in the right place at the right time, and he alone was capable of recording this. He saw the potential, and he pulled the trigger.

After all a camera is but a clock. It gives you control over the seconds, and offers the potential to freeze time forever.

As Bresson himself says (16:58)"It's always luck. It's luck that matters. You have to be receptive that's all"