Photography Analysis
Artwork: Roman Amphitheatre, Valencia, Spain.
Artist: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Date: 1933
Size: image: 9.5x14.13inches (24.1x35.9cm) and the paper: 12x16inches (30.5x40.6cm)
The “Roman Amphitheatre, Valencia, Spain” photographed by Henri Cartier-Bresson is taken from the focal/vantage point of a bull and shows an attendant watching the action from a rectangular window. The inside doors of the Valencia Area and the positioning of this photograph makes it clear that Cartier-Bresson has put much thought into this as he has entered the area to take it. The composition of the “Roman Amphitheatre” is extremely complex and this reflects the photographer’s cubism influences. Every major structural element is fractured in this photograph. Some example of the is that the arena doors are ajar, the number seven which is in two abstract forms, the attendant’s circular glasses are awry with one lens catching the light but the other remaining transparent, and the foreground figure’s body is also link to a faceless counterpart wearing identical clothing which give the effect that he has been beheaded by the door. “The picture as a whole illustrates the avant-garde theory of simultaneous multiple vision and is sophisticated critique of the bull’s-eye school of photographic composition. Cartier-Bresson is an excellent photographer as he tries to convey the message of the how “we can never close the door, align the rings. Reconstruct the numeral, or clear the attendant’s vision” via an image that forces the viewer to accept the ‘disjunctive and mysterious as part of the modern experience of the world”.
Background information: Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on the 22 August 1908 in Cantaloupe-en-Brie, France. Small portable cameras were available for the first time when Henri was still in his youth. This allowed him to carry a camera with him at all times, and create the first, fine art “street photography”. As Cartier-Bresson once said:
“The only thing which
Artist: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Date: 1933
Size: image: 9.5x14.13inches (24.1x35.9cm) and the paper: 12x16inches (30.5x40.6cm)
The “Roman Amphitheatre, Valencia, Spain” photographed by Henri Cartier-Bresson is taken from the focal/vantage point of a bull and shows an attendant watching the action from a rectangular window. The inside doors of the Valencia Area and the positioning of this photograph makes it clear that Cartier-Bresson has put much thought into this as he has entered the area to take it. The composition of the “Roman Amphitheatre” is extremely complex and this reflects the photographer’s cubism influences. Every major structural element is fractured in this photograph. Some example of the is that the arena doors are ajar, the number seven which is in two abstract forms, the attendant’s circular glasses are awry with one lens catching the light but the other remaining transparent, and the foreground figure’s body is also link to a faceless counterpart wearing identical clothing which give the effect that he has been beheaded by the door. “The picture as a whole illustrates the avant-garde theory of simultaneous multiple vision and is sophisticated critique of the bull’s-eye school of photographic composition. Cartier-Bresson is an excellent photographer as he tries to convey the message of the how “we can never close the door, align the rings. Reconstruct the numeral, or clear the attendant’s vision” via an image that forces the viewer to accept the ‘disjunctive and mysterious as part of the modern experience of the world”.
Background information: Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on the 22 August 1908 in Cantaloupe-en-Brie, France. Small portable cameras were available for the first time when Henri was still in his youth. This allowed him to carry a camera with him at all times, and create the first, fine art “street photography”. As Cartier-Bresson once said:
“The only thing which