Image Analysis

Henri Cartier-Bresson-Image Analysis

Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He is known for his black and white street photography where he uses compositional techniques and geometry to tell the story of his images.

In this image, Henri has used the effects of silhouettes to draw us into the image. The silhouettes clearly stand out to our eyes because there in no detail on them, so initially we're just looking at a black shape. You could also say that Henri is using 'rule of thirds' in this image because in each third, there is something to focus on. The main thing we focus on is the man the doing the leap in the air, this is because he is in the centre of the image and closest to us. We then look at the couple in the right third of the image as they are a little further back but because the silhouette is a bold black, they stand out. Finally, we look at the Eiffel Tower and the left third of the image, this is because the silhouette is not as bold as the people and it is also the furthest away from us. 

In this image of the Berlin Wall, Henri again uses the 'rule of thirds' but also leading lines. The length of the wall makes us want to follow it into the background to see where it will lead is. This is why this technique is called leading lines because the lines leads us into something and in this case, leads us to the never ending wall. The image also follows the rule of thirds with the foreground in the left third showing us the children playing. The innocence and loneliness of the children playing also draws us into the image as we feel sympathy for them as they're not sure why the wall is there, so they incorporate the wall into their play by attempting to climb it so that they can escape. In the middle of the image we see the lonely child and in the right third we see the never ending wall with barbed wire, leading us into the un-known. 

Again in this image, Henri uses leading lines to draw us into the image. Here he uses the 'Fibonacci spiral' as the line to lead us into the centre of the image and to convey a sense of depth. It seems the main subjects are the children, but it is actually the geometry of the spiral going upwards, the children just act as an aid. Our eyes naturally follow leading lines within an image and in this case, we ignore the children as the get further away and just focus on the strong geometry shape which also acts as an illusion giving the image more depth.