STEPHEN from the Gold Coast of Australia writes:

What an absolutely charming photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson of the boy carrying bottles of wine. Thank you very much for posting it.

So much to enjoy and learn from in this deceptively simple photo far beyond the obvious charm  of the boy’s proud and impish grin.

The scene portrayed in this photograph superbly complements what Dr. Plinio Correa de Oliveira correctly identifies as the immense and life-affirming joy that flows to all of us if, like our Lord,  we embrace and value the most basic and least expensive pleasures and rituals of life: the gathering and proper ordering of families, participation in the life of one’s local community, the sharing of unadorned but wholesome food and drink among family and friends.

It seems to me that this deceptively simple photo of one small boy beautifully and powerfully captures all the tell-tale signs of  what was, by any measure, a far better,  gladsome and worthier world than that which we inhabit now in the West.

I will leave it to you and your perceptive readers to decide but I don’t believe that I’m reading to much into this scene when I say that I see in it the following beautiful things beautifully portrayed:

1. A small boy proud to have been entrusted by his parents or grandparents with the important chore of collecting and bringing back to the home what he knows to be valued commodities to the adults in his world – two bottles of wine which he knows from experience they await, will receive from him with pleasure and share convivially;

2. A small boy secure in his place in his community and proud to have been greeted, as he certainly would have been, by name on his arrival by the proprietor of the liquor store who would likely have known him and his place in his family be it as the son or grandson or nephew of, and who in his turn would have known the store owner and the members of his family;

3. A small boy who might very well have been entrusted by the adults of his world with the cash to pay for his precious cargo – and who is basking in what he knows to be a significant sign of trust in him: a heady, maturing responsibility for any boy;

4. A small boy who has seen enough to know that the two plain and unadorned bottles he carries, and their contents,  are no less important and valuable for that;

5. Perhaps I am projecting here – but I think not – I also see in this boy’s face the wholesome confidence of an eldest son or grandson of an Italian or Spanish family (or perhaps of another catholic European culture) – treated just that little bit differently and indulged just that little bit more than his siblings and cousins for that fact, not the least way by being the the boy usually granted the honour to carry on the Christian name of his paternal grandfather and the men of his line.

Of course, very sadly, one need hardly wonder what the reaction of the neighbours would be were this photograph to have been taken today. The boy’s parents would almost certainly have been reported to the authorities by some self-righteous, meddling “do-gooder” for child endangerment by reason of allowing him to carry alcohol, whilst the photographer, if male, would have been man-handled for daring to point a lens at the boy.

Such a beautiful picture. Such a beautiful world, (no less so for its  austerity). So great our loss.

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