Eagerly, Knowingly, Helplessly

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON, GANDHI’S FUNERAL PYRE, DELHI, 1948

Be ashamed, O mountains and seas: these were men of valorous breath.
Assume, like pale chattels, an ashen silence at death.
                                                                                                                 – Parmenio

Consumed in desperate agony, like a helpless witness to Nature’s destructive whim, the shadowed eyes, sunken and glazed, focus and unfocus through the fragrant smoke of the funeral pyre. As the first flames lick at his wrapped corpse, Gandhi begins his transition from flesh to dust. It is a moment of simultaneous chaos and silence – the pressurised throng of onlookers watching eagerly, knowingly, helplessly.

Photo: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gandhi’s Funeral Pyre, Delhi, 1948, Part of his India series of 1947 – 1948 (http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN)