Circus Side Show, Beaumont, Texas

1962
(French, 1908–2004)
Image: 29.5 x 19.5 cm (11 5/8 x 7 11/16 in.); Mounted: 48.4 x 34.9 cm (19 1/16 x 13 3/4 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
© Henri Cartier-Bresson
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location: not on view

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Description

Henri-Cartier Bresson is recognized for his ability to capture the "decisive moment" in candid pictures of people and events around the world. Initially visiting the United States in 1935, he returned to photograph on and off for some three decades. His subjects were mostly people and he especially focused on immigrants and blacks/African Americans. This image exemplfies Cartier-Bresson's ability to capture the moment when all the pictorial elements are tightly composed and at the psychological peak of action. Here he examines the racial issues and social mores in southeast Texas in the early 1960s with his poignant vignette of two young boys—one black and one white—briefly pausing in their exploration of the circus's midway.
Circus Side Show, Beaumont, Texas

Circus Side Show, Beaumont, Texas

1962

Henri Cartier-Bresson

(French, 1908–2004)
France, 20th century

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