Curator, Peter Galassi: Cartier-Bresson made this picture at a bullfight in Pamplona, Spain in 1952. And he's alternating between photographing the bullfight, which he's probably not very interested in, and the crowd. And he gets interested in this wealthy lady that we see at the top of the picture, with her fan, where the decorated Toreador's capes have been draped over the concrete wall of the arena. And then begins the sequence of five or six frames that led up to this picture, where he notices that he's got several Toreadors who are standing under the wall, and that he can make this picture that connects the crowd with the Toreadors.
Then he gets more interested in these two fellows. The guy on the left, who's speaking, and you see, his right hand on his hip, his left hand gesturing, and the way that his eyebrows are raised, that he's explaining that "How could anyone possibly disagree with me? I'm so completely right!" What makes it both a fabulous image, as an image, and a wonderful evocation of an aspect of old Spanish culture, is from top to bottom the whole image has this sort of glittery luxury that is in the woman's dress, on her fan, in the cape that's draped below her, and of course in the luxurious costumes of the Toreadors.