The Beginning of the Future of Modern Photography: Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, 1932
Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, on a day in 1932, pointed his camera through a fence behind the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris. This photo is considered a masterpiece of form and light. A man is leaping across the water, resembling the dancers in the poster on the wall behind him.
Henri Cartier-Bresson/Time
Timing was a major for this photographer. He even had a term for being able to immortalize a fleeting scene on camera – he called it the “Decisive Moment. This fast, moving, detail-obsessed style changed the future of all of modern photography.
You’ve probably seen the next photograph, but likely don’t know the story behind it.