Teju Coles’ Photo Essay – Redwan Ahamed

In Teju Coles’ essay “Perfect and unrehearsed”, my favorite photo is “Suzhou creek by Cartier-Bresson”. This is a documentary photo which shows the life of fishermen’s or sailors. I can only assume that this photo was taken during sunset because usually, fishermen’s return with their boats after they’re done with fishing, which is the time of sunset. Also, when I saw their instruments, it made me think, “Do they use them to clean the water?” Anyway, but The black and white color, the outfit of these fishermen’s and the instruments they are using tells me that this photo was taken in the late 90’s. The dominant impression of this photo is the man who is smoking and holding up the cigarette. The impression of this guy tells me something sad is going on in his life.  Maybe his fishing business or maybe some other business related to sailing boats is not going very well. Also, I can assume that these boats are bigger than usual which means that they use them either in the river or in the ocean. Overall, this photo gives me a dramatic vibe and the people’s expressions of this photo gives me an idea about their job, their lifestyle, their culture, their ethnicity etc. which makes it perfect as a documentary photo.