生命的凝视:卡蒂埃·布列松的摄影作品解读

The Gaze of Life: Photographic Interpretations by Cartier Bresson

卡蒂埃·布列松被誉为20世纪最伟大的摄影家之一,在其摄影集《决定性瞬间》中提出著名的摄影理论“决定性瞬间”。凝视(gaze)作为一种观看的方式,与普通的观看或看见不同,哲学家萨特认为,它创造了一种主体性的权力差异。尼科尔斯(Bill Nichols)在《再现现实》(Representing Reality)在区分几种纪录片摄影机“凝视”的伦理规范时将“凝视”总结为六种情形,其中包含了干预的凝视和人道的凝视。从卡蒂埃·布列松的拍摄方式来看,理想中的拍摄方式想采取的是一种非干预、非介入的态度,而就其摄影作品主题对生命的凝视,拍摄过程以及呈现出的作品效果而言,布列松则不止于作为一位职业摄影师而采取静观的态度,更是一种人道的凝视和介入。两者并不是矛盾关系,而是所采取的特殊的拍摄的方式所拍摄的作品在替摄影家言说,言说他对世界的看法和见解。在布列松摄影作品主题对生命的凝视尤其是对孤独者、沉睡者和死亡主题的关注中,布列松对孤独者的读解包含了个人的孤独、群体的孤独和人类的孤独,对睡眠者的读解则诉说了人类在面对苦难的态度,睡眠充当了苦难隐退的角色,而对于死亡,孩童、青年人与接近死亡的人在面对死亡时的态度各有不同。而对于生命的凝视,不仅是对生命状态实质的解读,更是作为一个人文主义者的摄影师在解读生命与世界的关系。

Cartier Bresson is regarded as one of the greatest photographers in the 20th century, and put forward the famous photography theory “decisive moment” in his photo collection “decisive moment”. Gaze, as a way of watching, is different from ordinary watching or seeing. The philosopher Sartre believes that it creates a subjective power difference. In Representing Reality, Bill Nichols divided the “gaze” into six situations when he distinguished the ethical norms of several documentary cameras, including intervening gaze and humane gaze. Judging from Cartier Bresson’s shooting mode, the ideal shooting mode wants to adopt a non-intervention and non-intervention attitude, while in terms of his photography theme’s gaze on life, shooting process and the effect of his works, Bresson not only takes a wait-and-see attitude as a professional photographer, but also takes a humane gaze and intervention. The relationship between the two is not contradictory, but the special shooting method adopted. The works taken are speaking for the photographer and his views and opinions on the world. In Bresson’s focus on life, especially on the lonely, the sleeper and the death theme, Bresson’s interpretation of the lonely includes individual loneliness, group loneliness and human loneliness, while the interpretation of the sleeper tells the attitude of human beings in the face of suffering. Sleep plays the role of suffering retreat, while children, young people and people close to death have different attitudes towards death. The gaze on life is not only the interpretation of the essence of life state, but also the interpretation of the relationship between life and the world as a humanist photographer.