The coronation of King George VI in London on 12 May 1937 was one of the most widely reported events of the interwar period. Henri Cartier-Bresson, who had already spent several months working for the newly established communist newspaper Ce Soir, was assigned to cover the occasion. While most photographers focused on the coronation ceremony, the royal carriage procession, or the appearance of the Royal Family on the balcony, Cartier-Bresson was drawn elsewhere. Rather than photographing the newly crowned King, he turned his camera toward the people who had gathered to witness the spectacle.
Amid the day's official pageantry, what fascinated him most was the extraordinary crowd lining the streets along the procession route. He produced a remarkable series of portraits showing spectators craning their necks, climbing onto elevated vantage points, or balancing on the shoulders of others in an effort to catch a glimpse of the King. Cartier-Bresson was particularly intrigued by the ingenious devices people devised to improve their view, ranging from simple pocket mirrors to homemade cardboard periscopes and rear-view mirrors attached to the ends of sticks.
The series first appeared in Ce Soir and was later republished in the Communist Party's illustrated magazine Regardsunder the title Those Who Watched.... In these photographs, Cartier-Bresson subtly reverses the conventional perspective of a royal event. The photographer literally turns his back on the King to photograph the crowd, while the spectators themselves turn away from the camera in search of a better view of the monarch. By reversing the direction of the gaze, Cartier-Bresson transforms the act of looking into a quiet reflection on power, suggesting that the true subject of the event is not the sovereign, but the people assembled to witness history.
