Henri Carter Bresson, was probably the most significant man the world of photography has ever seen. He was a surrealist and took photographs unlike any other, prior to when his signature photo was taken. Before this photography was when people would pay to pose and have portraits taken of them and their family.
Bresson would find a spot from where he could take his picture, sit and wait for “the decisive moment” a moment in time that complete changes the photograph from a picture to a work of art. Bresson was renowned for having an eye for this moment; he would wait for hours on end for just this one photograph.
His most famous photograph showed a man jumping across a puddle with broken bikes and machines inside it. It modern days it is seen almost as a vision showing the state the world would be in the first world war, which was soon approaching... the broken bike and machines symbolise the fragility and state of Europe during that war, it is broken and in pieces. And the man leaping into the puddle is meant to represent the soldiers in the war leaping into the unknown.
The camera that Bresson used was the Leica, a revolutionary device that was the first handheld film camera that used light filters and shutters to take an instant picture. Before this cameras would need stands and take at minimum an hour to complete the picture. The Leica was also public available, an everyman’s camera. And even today the work that Bresson did with this camera, his work which inspired others has immortalised this camera keeping it forever culturally significant and a legend to the camera world.
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