Henri-Cartier Bresson

    Born in 1908, Henri-Cartier Bresson lived his entire life capturing moments and exploring the world near and far. We can understand his life  better by how much work he produced. Just like Ray Johnson who lived his leave as a performance art till his death, Cartier Bresson spent his entire life capturing and documenting profound moments from around the globe.  One quote that I relate to mostly when thinking of my project is one said by Cartier Bresson and I qoute

 "To take a photograph means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second– both the fact itself and the rigorous organisation of visually perceived forms that give it meaning...."

This to me makes perfect sense. It is with this same idea that I decided  to expand more on my visual display project to see how visually people are made to engage actively in consumerism . It is very difficult to remember events long past the happening time but having and image in a print form helps to remember and to bring to life moments long lived especially those that are specific  to specific time and place. Below are some photos by Henri-Cartier Bresson that I can relate to my own work even though I acknowledge that  meanings varies among audiences.

     These photographs carry strong visual messages and also shows the documentation of time even when it passes. The composition of each image may or may not have been intentionally positioned but one thing is obvious. That is it get the viewer thinking about the action or event, time and place, and lastly the reanson(s) for such profound images. Comparing these and other photographs by Cartier Bresson, I realized that even though my project  All Displayed which is about comparing a visual culture of two countries Ghana and the USA on how things are strategically displayed to promote consumerism, the idea of visually appealing to viewer to stop and interact with whatever it is before them.
Henri-Cartier Bresson has created a library of history through his art work which is serving not only to his fame but also as a resource len through which the world an dthings around us can be viewed.