ICP paragraphs

Last days of the Kuomintang by Cartier Bresson takes a photo of the “Gold Rush” in Shanghai. Were a group of Chinese men and women are packed together in front of the bank panicking to recover their gold before the beginning of the communist era. This photograph struck me. Having my grandparents be one of the citizens that escaped from the beginning of the communist era to Hong Kong, seeing an image from that time prompted me to imagine the situation that my grandparents went through. Besides that, I really enjoy the expression of peoples faces. Some of them looked shocked towards the camera and some just looked as if it’s their day to day lives.

Outside Presbyterian Church by Cartier Bresson takes a photo of three elderly women coming out from a church looking furiously away. Cartier Bresson toke the photo from below, giving the subject a sense of power. One thing I really enjoyed is the composition of the photo. With the top of the church being placed on the center top of the photo, our eyes are led from the three women to the top point of the church. Up to age women from a church, is often portrayed as kind and resentful. But through Cartier’s lens, he created irony, defeating the stereotypical imagery on women. A very strong a powerful image.

This photo by Cartier Bresson is a photograph of a woman, standing against a wall with a newspaper seller pushing its stall. With my first glance at the photo, it told me a different story- A women of color hiding behind the wall from a detective looking through the stalls. Cartier toke this photo in the decisive moment, if the newspaper man had not lunged lower or if the women had not looked over to the side, it wouldn’t tell as an effective story. I really enjoyed the narration of the photo. It looks so realistic that had me be fearful for the women.

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