The Quai St Bernard, near the Gare d'Austerlitz, Paris 1932

Henri Cartier-Bresson took this photograph, The Quai St Bernard, near the Gare d'Austerlitz, in Paris, with a camera that saw in black and white. I imagine him there, waiting, watching, feeling the light and the air. It's all about the light, isn't it? How it falls, making shapes out of the ordinary. There's something so stark, so real about the way he captures the scene. I wonder what he saw in those covered objects, those shadowed figures? They're like secrets, hiding in plain sight. Maybe he was thinking about the fleeting nature of life, about how moments pass and become memories. The photograph doesn’t seem to ask questions. It’s as if the people in the photograph knew something and were too kind to tell. It's a little like Edward Hopper, but maybe more friendly? Photography and painting both freeze time, and it’s cool to think about how artists are always looking, learning from each other, even across different ways of making.