In Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (http://100photos.time.com/photos/henri-cartier-bresson-behind-gare-saint-lazare if there is a pivotal point in the image, I would say it is the tiny gap between the heel of the leaping figure, and the reflection of their heel, in the water below them.
While there are many other elements to the image, stories being told, questions being asked …‘Who is the other figure and what is he doing?’ ‘What is the time on the clock?’ ‘Why is this area flooded?’ ‘Why is it fenced off?’ ‘What is being built/demolished?’ …The gap, between heel and reflected heel asks the biggest question of all.
What is the world like, in this moment, before this heel joins with its reflection, and what will it be like a moment from now? It is a clear and obvious moment of transition. Something will change and be other than how it was.
The information in this image… the story, if you like, is fairly self-evident to the viewer. This is not always the case with photographs.
Rinko Kawauchi’s untitled image from the cover of Iluminance https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/dec/07/deutsche-borse-prize-photography-2012 contains information… There is a rose, it is brightly lit and over-exposed. There may or may not be other flowers in the background. The overall colour of the scene is a rich deep red. If there is a story here, though, it is not self-evident, so if we want one, we must make it up ourselves.
Is there a pivotal point? Certainly the rose is the object that draws my eye back to it, but it tells me nothing, other than that it is there. Much is suggested… light is bright, but is it natural, or artificial? Is it there by chance, or placed deliberately by the photographer? What object is creating that green ‘bokeh ball’ on the right? Is it in the sky, like the moon, or something closer?
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