Time: Activity 1 Blog

Look at a Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph and discuss why you think that capturing the decisive moment has added to the picture’s quality.


Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson

This image by Henri Cartier-Bresson shows a boy trying to tackle a boy with crutches, while a group of boys in the background cheer. Capturing the picture at this exact moment helped add to the pictures quality. The look of terror on the crippled boys face, and the mocking laugh of the boys in the background, makes the image more dramatic and intense. It makes the viewers wonder what exactly happened in the moment before to make the boys act like this. Another part of the image that adds to its quality is the boy holding the other boy back. It makes the viewers wonder whether the boy holding back the other boy is the crippled boys friend. If the photographer had taken the picture a moment later, the boy may have not been holding back the other boy anymore, and the effect would have been lost.