Brussels, Belgium 1932

This photograph, taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson in Brussels, Belgium, captures two figures standing against a wall, each lost in their own world. The light is hitting the wall in such a way that it creates the most unusual abstract shape, as if it were a canvas of its own, and the main figure seems to be looking in its direction. I imagine Cartier-Bresson spotting these folks and thinking, “Oh, this is weird, I need to capture this!” There’s this bowler-hatted, moustachioed man, all Edwardian, looking intense, while behind him, another man peers intently at something just out of view. It's the curiosity that gets me: What are they looking at? What's so interesting on the other side of that wall? Are they in conversation, in competition, or just isolated? We don't know. Maybe that is the point. Cartier-Bresson was a master of capturing a fleeting moment. He freezes the men in their act of viewing but makes us wonder forever. I can almost see him there, camera in hand, responding to the scene before him, but like many artists, he is in conversation with the world, finding inspiration in the everyday.