Gelatin silver print, printed in the 1990s 35,7 x 24,1 cm (14.1 x 9.5 in)
Signed by the photographer in ink in the margin, his copyright blindstamp in the margin lower left
LITERATURE Lincoln Kirstein/Beaumont Newhall (eds.), The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1947, p. 24; Henri Cartier-Bresson, Images à la Sauvette, Paris 1952, pl. 26; Yves Bonnefoy (ed.), Henri Cartier-Bresson, Photographe, Paris 1979, pl. 14; Peter Galassi (ed.), Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1987, p. 101; Vera Feyder/André Pieyre de Mandiargues/Henri Cartier-Bresson (eds.), Paris à vue d’oeil, Paris 1994, pl. 33; Jean-Pierre Montier (ed.), L’art sans art d’Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris 1995, p. 96; Henri Cartier-Bresson, De qui s’agit-il? Paris 2003, p. 59.

Mysterious, surreal and one of his most famous pictures: a man takes a leap in order to cross an immense puddle on the Place de l’Europe in Paris – and is fixed in mid-leap by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The photograph is animated by a binary rhythm. Apart from the characteristic reflections in the water, whose extent and depth are unfathomable, there are further doppelganger details behind the Gare Saint-Lazare: the metal rings strewn about, the circus posters in the background, the stylised dancer and the “jumper”, both seen like silhouettes, but also the rings and circular waves evoked by a water landing – in the imagination of the viewer. Structured by a baffling interplay of geometrical forms, this image can be considered a masterpiece of the photographic self-concept for which Cartier-Bresson coined a much-quoted formula thirty years later, using the expression of the “decisive moment”. It implies the conscious yet intuitive selection of a scene, the credo of perfect composition, eschewing artificial light and telephoto lenses, and respect for one’s surroundings. Thus, the Magnum co-founder and legendary Leica photographer revolutionieised 20th century photography – in this case with his first Leica, a Leica I Mod. A he had bought in Marseilles in 1932 – the same year this picture was taken.

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