The artwork titled “Fire in Hoboken, facing Manhattan” is a photograph taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1947. This evocative black-and-white image captures the aftermath of a fire in Hoboken, with the distant skyline of Manhattan visible through the smoky haze. The genre of the artwork is photography.
The photograph depicts a desolate, charred landscape, with twisted and broken remains of structures that have been reduced to ruins. Smoke billows from the debris, creating an ethereal atmosphere, while the clouds in the sky above add a dramatic contrast to the scene. The distant silhouette of Manhattan’s skyscrapers, standing tall and almost ghost-like through the mist, provides a poignant juxtaposition to the devastation in the foreground. The artwork masterfully conveys a sense of destruction and resilience, capturing a moment of stark reality with artistic depth.