“I am a visual man. I watch, watch, watch. I understand things through my eyes.”
~ Henri Cartier Bresson
(1908-2004)
If asked to name the “perfect” composition among the hundreds of thousands of images I’ve encountered over my career, this would certainly be one of them.
Ichikawa Danjuro XI was a celebrated Kabuki actor, and Henri was on assignment for Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s leading daily newspaper, when he attended the farewell service at Aoyama Funeral Hall. It was not an obvious place to expect a significant image.
Yet such was Henri’s genius: he created a photograph not about death, but about life. The enduring power of the actor’s presence—what he meant to those around him—resonates throughout this beautiful, powerful, and humbling image. One of his greatest.
