Weekly post 5

Giovann Collazo
Shane Rocheleau
Intro to Digital Photography
http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN

These photos were taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Two of these photos were taken in France and one in America; all three are black and white. The first two were taken in the thirties while the the other was taken in the seventies. Bresson used a Leica rangefinder. The first photo shows a man standing with his side facing the audience, and his head turned. Bresson probably asked the man to stand there and to look as though he is waiting on someone or something; or he just took the photo at the right moment. The second photo shows french plaster workers posing in front of cloths or sacks. He probably asked them to stand and pose in front of their work and took the photo from about ten feet away. The third photo shows a man trying to escape a prison a cell. Bresson most likely asked the warden to take a photo of the angry convict.

I believe that Bresson tried to convey a sense of mystery while photographing this man and wanted to establish a sense of curiosity. In the second photograph, Bresson wanted the audience to have a sense that maybe their lives are not as strenuous or as busy as the lives as these men shown here. In the third photograph, Bresson wants to show the audience that this man, though his being there may be well-founded, is suffering mentally from being locked in prison.

The first photograph of the "Patient Man", as I like to call him, makes me wonder who is this man and what is he waiting for? It also makes me wonder if this man is anxious; the way he looks back looks as though he is being followed. The second photo makes me feel like these men worked like hell and probably for a measly penny. Bresson symbolically puts their work on my shoulders and it feels unbearable. The last photo with the writhing inmate runs a chill down my spine. It really looks eerie and frightening to see bits and pieces of a man slowly going out of his mind. Bresson made an effort to put a scare into the audience and he succeeded.