It was one the first books that I bought when I was beginning my photographic career. The title was “The world of Henri Cartier-Bresson”; the careful printing was done in Lucerne, Switzerland, and the Spanish edition belonged to Lumen. Fascinated, I kept on admiring his pictures: "On the banks of the Marne 1938”, “The jumper on the water, Paris 1932", “Jerusalem 1967” made in the Orthodox neighbourhood of Mea Sharin … But I had a favourite one, five children playing besides the Berlin Wall, an image that Cartier-Bresson took in 1962. This photo was printed full-page as one of the importants in the book.
The years passed by and I had plenty of chances to meet again with the work of Cartier-Bresson: in Paris, in the Piazza del Duomo in Milano, in Amsterdam, in the retrospectives that were made in Barcelona at the Picasso Museum, at Caixa Forum …I reviewed all the books that kept showing retrospectives of his work, but never went back to see the photo of the children playing near the Berlin Wall. I even asked for the photo to Ferdinando Scianna, the Sicilian Magnum photographer, friend of Cartier-Bresson. “I do not know,” replied Ferdinando, “and is a picture that I also like very much.” What could be the reason? I went back to analyze carefully the photo. It is taken at the decisive moment and holds a strong symbolism to me: the eldest girl represents kindness, comfort, protection …All those who find refuge next to her are safe: the dark haired girl that hugs her with despair, the child who held her hand and the little blond girl running towards her with an expression of relief on her face. Only the smallest child, who stays away, with her scooter along the wall, seems helpless. The picture conveys a strong emotional charge. Would it be for that? I believe Henri Cartier-Bresson is a cold photographer, who was not involved with the people he photographed. His 50 mm lens gets him to a certain distance, and his speed and discretion makes him to pass like a breath of air near the people he photographed without them noticing him. But the picture of children next to the wall is different. In fact is unlike anything in the style of Cartier-Bresson. It even could be attributed to any of the other two founders of Magnum, Robert Capa or David Seymour “Chim” who loved children. The distance in this image is also different; Cartier-Bresson is much closer to what is habitual in him. And the lens used does not look like a 50mm. The walls of the right are deformed. It seems taken with a 35mm.
In contrast, another photo that Cartier-Bresson took, next to the Berlin wall in the same trip, and have been appearing regularly falls well within the parameters of his style: impeccable composition and suitable distance, but not convey the strong emotional charge of the image of children. Will it be for all those reasons that the other photo is gone?
You can see the article (also in Spanish) and the photographs) in:
http://pacoelvirafoto.blogspot.com/2008/12/cartier-bresson-el-misterio-de-la-foto.html