Joel Meyerowitz is one of the greatest photographer of all time. In this photo, taken in Paris in 1967, there is so much to tell, it’s for sure one of the greatest street photos ever taken. We are immediately catapulted in the Paris street, spectators of its daily life, surprised and unable to understand what just happened.
There is a man on the ground, maybe fallen, maybe fainted, and in Meyerowitz’s photo everybody is looking at him, like a centripetal force that capture the eyes (included ours). Everything is freezed in this amazing shot, a mistery that involves passers-by, a cyclist, workers, with a traffic jam in the background that recalls the crowd on the right side of the photo.
As Meyerowitz said: “A photograph allows such contradictions to exist in everyday life, more than that, it encourages them. Photography is about being exquisitely present”.
Living is easy with one eye closed 