Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Henri Cartier-Bresson Fontaine des Innocents
Between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries, there was a cemetery, called the cimetire des Innocents, on the place in this photograph. Over the years two million corpses were buried or simply stored in this location. Despite this, the area was very popular with street vendors, writers and just the general public.
Close to the end of the eighteenth century, the cemetery was closed and a fruit and vegetable market was built in its place. All two million bodies were dug up and moved to unused subterranean quarries near what is now Montparnasse, which today are called the Catacombs. At the same time, a fountain that had been set against a wall near the cemetery was transported to the new site, and it was partially rebuilt to add on the missing sides that it didn't have when it was set into the wall. It's called the Fontaine des Innocents and it is what can be seen in the background of this picture.
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This is a black and white portrait photograph of two woman sitting on wooden crates, surrounded by wooden crates, on the side of the road with a fountain behind them. Both woman are very nicely dressed, possibly out on a lunch break, and are talking to each other. They are positioned at the bottom right of the photo and to the left are a couple of bags of what appears to be carrots...