The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Circus Side Show, Beaumont, Texas

Circus Side Show, Beaumont, Texas

1962
(French, 1908–2004)
France, 20th century
gelatin silver print
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.)
John L. Severance Fund 2000.82
© Henri Cartier-Bresson
Location: not on view

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.
  • Looking at Children: Photographs from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 20-December 4, 2002).
    CMA, July 20 - December 4, 2002; "Looking at Children". No catalog
  • {{cite web|title=Circus Side Show, Beaumont, Texas|url=false|author=Henri Cartier-Bresson|year=1962|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2000.82