Seville, Spain
Photograph
Seville, Spain
1933
Gelatin silver print
20/50
Image (flush mount): 9 13/16 × 14 13/16 in. (25 × 37.6 cm)
Matted: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Gift of Magnum Photos, 1960
1973.0063.0004
Inscriptions Inscribed in pencil on verso, LC: Henri Cartier-Bresson \ 20/50
Inscribed in pencil on verso, BC: Children playing in the Ruins \ Spain, 1933
Inscribed in pencil on verso, BC: Children playing in the Ruins \ Spain, 1933
Text“To take a photograph means to recognize—simultaneously and within a fraction of a second—both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis.” This statement by Henri Cartier-Bresson, published in his 1952 book Images à la Sauvette (released in English as The Decisive Moment the same year), summarizes his concept of “the decisive moment.” That principle, together with the Leica’s compact size and eye-level viewfinder, led Cartier-Bresson to a photographic approach that depended heavily on his well-honed intuition and open embrace of spontaneity. In this photograph the benefit of these guiding forces is strongly evident; in another split second, the constellation of children’s gestures and their disposition in the rubble, which echoes the shape of the blasted hole in the wall, would have been different—and perhaps not as effective as this particular convergence of head, eye, and heart.
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
