Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare

[3] The spontaneous photograph was taken by Cartier-Bresson at the Place de l'Europe, outside the Saint-Lazare train station, in Paris, with his portable Leica camera.

In this case, he took aim at a man who leaps above a shallow flooded space, without touching it, while his shadow is reflected beneath him, near a partially submerged ladder.

The man is forever framed in the air, without touching the water, capturing the moment before he inevitably lands in the pool.

Cartier-Bresson explained that "There was a plank fence around some repairs behind the Gare [Saint] Lazare, and I was peeking through the spaces with my camera eye.

[4][5][6] It was exhibited as soon as 1933 at the Julien Levy gallery in New York under the name "homme sautant place de l'Europe".