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| Tod Papageorge |
After making such a bold
statement in the opening line of his essay, Henri
Cartier-Bresson: Two Lives, I agree with writer and photographer, Tod
Papageorge. “I’m going to speak today about Henri Cartier-Bresson, arguably one
of the greatest photographer who’s ever lived.” As Papageorge begins his talk
about photography at Yale, he leaves no room for argument, interpretation, and
examination. With the photographs produced by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Papageorge
provides a powerful analysis that allows for him to make this daring
assessment, that Cartier-Bresson’s work and him, as an artist, is truly, not
just one of the best, but the best.
When we look at a black and white
image, we try to examine it for the simple elements that make up the image. We
look for a subject or object, and once we move past those steeples in the
image, we begin to consider vantage point, shadows, highlights, framing, and
positing. At the bottom of this list, comes to story that all these different
components make up within the single structure. I believe this is exactly why
Papageorge singles out Cartier-Bresson as being the most talented photographer
our world of artists has ever seen. I came to this conclusion by viewing a few
pieces of Papageorge's and immediately seeing the similarities between his work
and Cartier-Bresson. These similarities that can be seen between these two
distinguished collections of photographs, are in actuality, the basis for
creating a successful picture, in general. Thus the presence of these themes in
Papageorge's work and Cartier-Bresson proves that these qualities in composition
make the most pleasing image to view. 
In this essay Papageorge points
out the technical’s that makeup Cartier-Bresson’s works, but he also
acknowledges, the impact of the feelings and emotions that can be translated
through his works as well. This also sparked Papageorge's, examination of what
category of work and artistry that Cartier-Bresson truly falls under. “On the heels of producing an
unprecedented body of photographic poetry, Cartier-Bresson begins to inflect
the deeply focused energy that had been required for what he had accomplished
by cross-cutting it with extra-personal, political, and artistic concerns…this ardent
photographer-poet assumed another identity.” Identity is crucial for not only
an artist, but for that to be translated through the work. This ties into my
understanding of Papageorge's utmost respect of Cartier-Bresson as an artist.
The poetry and identity that Papageorge speaks of coincides greatly with all of
the different pieces that make up a single photograph. It is the combination of
those essentials that allow for the poetic interpretations to be perceived, and
the identity of the photographer, which allows for a consistent theme within
collections of work, to be recognized. 
In both collection of works by
Papageorge and Cartier-Bresson, the portrait is the most featured piece. Both
of the artists focused on taking photos of the individuals that they have come
across. Shooting post World War II, Cartier-Bresson captures the aura of each
human he came in contact with. By traveling all over the world, Cartier-Bresson
presents street photography as a wide range of images that not only show bodily
and facial features, but also an environment that resonates as unfamiliar to a
certain audience. By composing each one of these images the way he did,
Cartier-Bresson proves to fall into this category of poetry and identity by
creating a feeling of mystery within each one of these places that he
photographed, but by doing so he proved the identity of each of his subjects. These
being crucial components of his work, ties into not only allowing him to create
a “free” identity and the artistic method of poetry as a comparison, but also
allow him to define his work in these manners, as Papageorge interprets. 
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