Trieste

Henri Cartier-Bresson

1933 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

In this early work, made just two years after he acquired his first 35mm Leica camera, Cartier-Bresson captures a scene of formal poetry and evocative mystery on a beach in Trieste, Italy, the site of one of his many travels in those years. Punctuated by the upright verticals of a tree and a brick tower, the horizontal expanses of sky and lawn are mirrored in the languorous pose of the outstretched figure. Suggesting calm and repose, the scene and the figure’s averted face nevertheless contain a disquieting note. Cartier-Bresson would continue to explore such themes throughout his long career, finding the surreal and the discordant within seemingly ordinary moments.

Artist

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Date

1933

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987