Analysis of Behind the Gare of saint lazare (Essay Sample)

Behind the Gare of saint lazare Introduction The image I choose is called Behind the Gale of Saint Lazare by Cartier Bresson. The image was generated from a link from Getty.edu (Getty conservation institute, n.d.). The image is as captioned herein under: One is initially attracted to this photo due to the freezing effect on the blurred picture of the jumping man. It raises curiosity since the photo is old and it is awful on how such a picture was taken at that age and time. It is also amazing that the background of the picture has a man that is jumping in the poster on the wall. This is similar to the man who is jumping raising the thought of the hidden symbolism that is brought about by this image. This similarity caught my attention suggesting that it might probably be a circus or a play that is being advertised in the background or that the image might be having another meaning. The photographer all in all seems to be conveying a message. A message of humorous similarities that exists in our lives; the comicality of these experiences in life that we normally ignore or fail to realise can be very interesting when discovered. It is difficult to recognise these similarities on a mere first look at the image. This had led the picture being referred to as the photo of the century (Bettles and Huxley, 2015). The history being depicted here is the history of the older times in ancient Europe where there was widespread announcements of plays or a circus. In this case being the "Railowski”. The age of cameras is also depicted in this context with the camera’s used producing black and white images. The age of photojournalism is also portrayed here with this image among the earliest taken by the photojournalist Cartier-Bresson. This photo was taken by Bresson in 1932 in Paris, France. The colours of the photograph are interesting taking one back to the time when there were no colored cameras. The image is blurred though the ideas conveyed in it are very clear. It is a vertical photo which was taken at close range. The photo was also taken abruptly with the man in mid air before dropping into the pool with a splash. The photo of the jumping man depicts the circus that is going to happen in the near future as advertised on the wall in the background. Thesis statement The imagery that is being communicated by the image would be distorted once I remove certain aspects from the image. Body On the removal of certain aspects of the image say the man jumping across the pool, it would be difficult to note the miraculous nature of the photo overall. One would not capture the fact that the man is doing what is depicted on the wall behind. That is, he is trying to some extent to imitate what the image in the background is doing. i.e. the man is trying to replicate the image that is on the wall the one advertising the circus. As such the only image that would exist on the picture is that of the drawn man on the wall who is jumping and as such, the similarity of the man drawn on the wall and the man jumping across the pool would not exist. The second aspect would be by the removal of the christened word "railwosky" in the background. The word seems to relate to the first aspect of the man jumping. The word is a depiction of an oncoming or an anticipated circus that is going to happen in the future. Removal of this word would result in the image failing to convey the message of the fact that there is a play or a circus that...