It is an amazingly successful photograph. There are strong echoes of Caravaggio and tenebrismo painting in the way the light falls with a single direction. They suggest a religious meaning, which the victim's posture, arms outstretched, reinforces. There is a mysterious hand reaching down from above, in the same direction as the light. And there is the young busboy, who looks straight at the viewer; because of this gesture, he is very human, whereas the rest of the drama seems to happen on a higher, mythical plane.
Of course, all of this was composed in a split second. It is a great example of what it means to capture the decisive moment. There was no time to think "oh, maybe I will do this in the style of Caravaggio". Eppridge must have had a fantastic talent and visual education, and was able to do something great on the spot, when there was no room for error From this point of view, the achievement is even more amazing than Cartier-Bresson's most famous photographs. After all, if Cartier-Bresson had failed to capture the best composition in one of his shots of the crowd at George V's coronation, or of the street urchins in Spain, it is quite possible that another equally good opportunity would have come up later the same day; but there was no second chance to take this photograph.
It is humbling that such great work exists, and one does not even know about it.
