Lake Sevan, Armenia, USSR, 1972
Vintage gelatin silver print
6 ¼ × 9 ¼ in.
Henri Cartier-Bresson copyright stamp on verso
July 14, 2025
During his second trip to the USSR, Henri Cartier-Bresson captured this scene that radiates fatherly pride. In fact, the father is focusing his look of love so intently at his child's beaming face that his gaze seems to be holding his offspring aloft as much as his hand. This photograph was taken on the shore of Lake Sevan, the largest body of water in Armenia. The lake is situated in a mountain basin, and has long been known as the "Jewel of Armenia” for its mild climate, lake breezes, and refreshing mountain air. Knowledge of Lake Sevan’s significance to Armenians casts Cartier-Bresson's photograph in a new light, with the father’s gesture, which may at first seem to be a photographic lark, taking on added resonance, as a celebration of ancestry and cultural legacy.
This photograph was featured recently in exhibitions devoted to Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice (co-organized with the Bibliothèque nationale de France) and Fotografiska, Stockholm.
