1
compRénension
I
CRGRTinG thg dgcisiug momenT
hy Frank Van Riper
The Washington Post
1 "Of ail the means of expression, photography is the only one that
| fixes forever the précisé and transitory instant. We photographers
| deal in things that are continually vanishing, and when they have
| vanished, there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come
back again. We cannot develop a print from memory" (From Henri
| Cartier-Bresson's 1952 essay on The Décisive Moment).
i 2 Henri Cartier-Bresson, (1908-2004), the legendary photographer,
| coined the term "the décisive moment" to refer to photography's
unique ability to freeze time, to capture moments in an instant, be it
the fleeting émotion between two lovers, peak sports action or tragedy
| amid war and upheaval.
1 3 It can be assumed that he was not talking about landscape
photographers making pictures of immovable mountains, or still life
photographers or architectural photographers. (And just as obviously,
| given the year of his essay, he was not talking about some poor soul
trying to digitally manufacture a great moment after the fact in
| Photoshop).
| 4 What he was talking about was only one type of shooting: call it
journalism, documentary photography, spot news photography,
| interprétative or environmental protaiture - even snapshooting.
5 Cartier-Bresson was talking about photography of the evanescent,
| of the here and now. The kind of photography that, in many ways,
i defines the entire craft, the entire art.
\
'
►
compRénension
I
CRGRTinG thg dgcisiug momenT
hy Frank Van Riper
The Washington Post
1 "Of ail the means of expression, photography is the only one that
| fixes forever the précisé and transitory instant. We photographers
| deal in things that are continually vanishing, and when they have
| vanished, there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come
back again. We cannot develop a print from memory" (From Henri
| Cartier-Bresson's 1952 essay on The Décisive Moment).
i 2 Henri Cartier-Bresson, (1908-2004), the legendary photographer,
| coined the term "the décisive moment" to refer to photography's
unique ability to freeze time, to capture moments in an instant, be it
the fleeting émotion between two lovers, peak sports action or tragedy
| amid war and upheaval.
1 3 It can be assumed that he was not talking about landscape
photographers making pictures of immovable mountains, or still life
photographers or architectural photographers. (And just as obviously,
| given the year of his essay, he was not talking about some poor soul
trying to digitally manufacture a great moment after the fact in
| Photoshop).
| 4 What he was talking about was only one type of shooting: call it
journalism, documentary photography, spot news photography,
| interprétative or environmental protaiture - even snapshooting.
5 Cartier-Bresson was talking about photography of the evanescent,
| of the here and now. The kind of photography that, in many ways,
i defines the entire craft, the entire art.
\
'
►