depiction of something momentous. Suddenly we sense photography’s
shortcomings as a historical record. We need know nothing more about
that puddle-jumper because nothing more is at stake, but the violence
shown here demands to be explained, demands that title to account for
it. Cartier-Bresson’s titles were rarely more than place names and dates.
This one is long, like a newspaper caption describing the action as if it
were ongoing.^6 Such a photograph does not so much narrate asrequire
narration. Photojournalismrequiresjournalism, because facts, however
‘powerful’, cannot speak for themselves. And, to be precise, the title here
does not refer to the outburst at all but to theearliermoment, when the
informer was recognized. In filling in the missing context the title
stretches the time of the image to include the moment before.
There is something theatrical in this shot of a visceral slap at the end
of the war. The scene is reminiscent of a show trial taking place before
the glare of the camera. The vantage point is ideal, as if the photographer
had been granted it in advance. It is also a highly visible vantage point
and may have influenced what was going on. To the photographer’s side
an assistant was filming with a movie camera and a more comprehensive
account of the scene appears in Cartier-Bresson’s documentary filmLe
28 Retour( 1945 ).^7 While its individual frames show less than the photograph,
19Framesequencefromthedocumentary
filmLe Retour(HenriCartier-Bresson,
1944–5).
18 top left:HenriCartier-Bresson,
‘AGestapoinformerrecognizedbya
womanshehaddenounced,deportation
camp,Dessau,Germany,1945’.
