Category Archives: Assignment 3: The decisive moment

Project 3 ‘What matters is to look’ – research point

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What Matters is to look

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1932

This image by Henri Carier-Bresson is described as ‘one of the most iconic photographs of the twentieth century’. Personally I’ve never seen it before.

As part of my research into Henri Cartier-Bresson, I watched ‘L’amour tout court’ on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/106009378 (accessed 10/01/2018).

The film is an interview with HC-B made by Raphael O’Byrne entitled ‘Just Plain Love’
It is in French but has English subtitles
 
HC-B starts by saying that most people don’t look properly at their subject, they just press the shutter buttons
 
He intermates that his parents were strict and prudish, whilst he frequented bordellos 
Left-wing catholics
 
HCB went to Africa
He is a bit of crusader for people less fortunate than himself.
He been in jail and then to the commandos, he feels like an escaped prisoner
 
HCB and Klavdij Sluban hold a regular photography workshop with the inmates in the Fleury-Mergois.  Sluban is now also going to a prison in Georgia.  At first the inmates seem very cautious and suspicious, but are soon running around taking photos, mostly of themselves.  He says that the inmates either refer to themselves as before incarceration or after, but not during.  By giving them a camera, we see their view of the prison, rather than the photographers.
 
HCB reviewing his famous leaping man image, said it was just luck, but that you need to leave yourself open, you can’t just want it to happen, because it won’t
 
He has framed his images, using geometry, divine proportion. Which he instinctively knows where it is.  It’s about capturing the physical rhythm of a situation.
 
Form should come first, light is the icing on the cake. Interview with writing, says that HCB was always looking, will see things others don’t see.  He sees the form or geometry of an image and the people within it provide the interest.
 
HCB you either have it you don’t.
 
Arkivah – people need to love to look, you can’t look at something you don’t love
Art is not a visual think, is a sensual think, if you don’t taste it you won’t see it.

 

just plain love a film by Raphael O’Bryan

the gaze should pierce 

wanting won’t work

physidcal rhythm

light is like purfune to me.

giocometti?

to look means to love – painter

suite nl3 en re mineur sarabande, bach

suite no3 en ut majeur, parelude, bach

suite no 1 en sol majeur, courante, bach

suite no 9 courante, haendel eric heidsieck

Jo Teasdale

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I was really motivated by Jo Teasdale’s presentation at Brighton and Hove Camera Club on 23.01.18.  She presented projects she is currently working on, one of which is “Looking Forward, Turning Back” series really inspired me.

read more about:Jo Teasdale’s; Looking Forward: Turning Back (accessed 28.01.18)

Looking Forward: Turning Back by Jo Teasdale

In Jo’s blog she says:

The concept came about when I thought how I took my photographs. Looking, watching and waiting, trying to keep alert for those individual moments in time when a picture is born. So taking a photograph of a particular view we naturally look around at what is in front of us. It occurred to me we never see what is behind us, there’s no reason to, we have found the view we wish to photograph. However, if we were to turn around what would we see? I wanted to capture precisely this

I found this a really interesting juxtaposition between in front and behind, in terms of Assignment 3 – Decisive Moment, I feel that this is something I could use or expand to incorporate the other themes.  Jo’s image above definitely engenders both landscape and a decisive moment.

Following this presentation, I went out the next day to have a go at taking a similar image.  I found out I can ‘overlay images’ in camera, so used this feature for this image. I chose to stand inside one of the shelters to take the images, as I wanted to explore the idea of Henri Cartier-Bresson that form and frame of the image can be prepared in advance and provides structure to the image. 

Mewsbrook – 24.01.18 – overlay image in camera

I would like to explore this idea further, taking an image of a person coming towards the camera and then from behind as they walk away. The decisive moment will be as they pass me, but the viewer will only see the before and after.

 

Mind Whirring

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At the moment, I have a number of ideas for Assignment 3 – The Decisive Moment, and was hoping to get out with my camera a start my set, but to be honest, I don’t think I can.  For the last assignment, I mapped out my thoughts and came up with a coherent idea and then prepared my equipment to go out to the right places to capture the images I wanted.

At this stage, ideas are are whirring around inside my head and I just haven’t nailed it down yet, so I think it would be foolish to just go out with my camera and hope I get what I’m looking for.  From the research I’ve done so far, I am convinced that the photographers, researched their locations, including the time and and usage before taking their cameras out.

So I’ve given myself some SMART objectives to get this done:

  1. to nail down my concept and make a decision by the end of next week (2.2.18)
  2. to research my chosen location/s by 9.2.19
  3. to have taken all images by 28.2.18 to enable printing in time for submission.
  4. to carry on with the coursework (Part 4) so that I don’t loose momentum.

Christian Stoll

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Christian Stoll, is a German photographer, working in Dussledorf and New York.

Multiple Exposure Street Scene – Christian Stoll

I particularly liked this image from his series “New York Split Second’.I love the concept of lots of ‘decisive moments’.  I know how to create double exposure images in my camera using the overlay function, but I think this level of multi-exposure will need to be worked up in post processing.

source: http://www.christian-stoll.com/website/photos_detail.php?gallerieID=1102&gallery=new-york_split_second (accessed 26.01.19)

Martin Dietrich

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Martin Dietrich is a German photographer living and working in Frankfurt

He says of himself:

My work is mostly of a certain abstract, minimalistic and geometrical nature including strong leading lines and shapes. To a large part my work incorporates urban themes such as architecture and street photography. Nevertheless you’ll also find some other things I feel like at the moment. 

source: http://www.martindietrichphotography.de/about-me/ (accessed 26.01.19)

I came across Martin’s work whilst doing research for Assignment 3 – The decisive moment. I have an idea for doing double exposure images for this assignment and was looking up other photographers who have done this.  

This image came up in a page: 10-photographers-creating-enigmatic-works-with-double-exposure.  i particularly liked the monochrome forms and the matt look of the image.

Double Exposure done in Camera (Fuji X-Pro 1) by Martin Dietrich

I particularly connected with Martin’s Street Photography work, which has other examples of this type of image.  Many of his images are very minimalist, and looking down from above at this subjects.  They are mostly high contrast and always have great light.  Many of the images also make use of shadows, which makes me think that he must research his locations in terms of time and light.

Looking at these images, brought back the comment by Henri- Cartier-Bresson in the video, that he always looked for form first, to him Light was just the ‘purfume’.  I am inclined to think, however, that getting the light right, really makes the difference and this is definitely the case in Martin’s work.

 

 

 

 

http://www.martindietrichphotography.de/

 

Assignment 3 – The Decisive Moment – Research

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Research into the concept of ‘the decisive moment’

How to Master “The Decisive Moment”

Eric Kim says that H C-B believed that:

  • “The Decisive Moment” was that split second of genius and inspiration that a photographer had to capture a certain moment
  • You can never recreate the same circumstances in terms of location and people.
  • You must constantly be looking for moments to capture,
  • Once that moment is gone, it is gone forever

7 Tips How to Capture “The Decisive Moment” in Street Photography

  1. What is a “decisive moment” for you
  2. Follow your intuition
  3. Set it and forgetit
  4. Photograph what you’re afraid of
  5. Look for emotion and gestures
  6. What is personally-meaningful to you
  7. Work the scene

The Decisive Moment and the Brain

this is an interesting article from Petapixel, which explores the interactions between conscious (i.e., knowing) and unconscious (i.e., intuiting) awareness and how the brain works to link the two. 

 

Extract from conversation on on student forum about a3 decisive moment.

https://discuss.oca-student.com/t/eyv-a3-decisive-moment-feedback-needed/6483

Comment by Clive White – OCA tutor:

I didn’t want them to be just an extension of cliché esthetics’

The decisive moment isn’t an outdated Modernist conceit, it’s an ever present appropriate strategy concerned with when you decided to press the shutter button. It’s the second most important decision the photographer makes after framing.

Some students seem to get the idea that they’re supposed to critique it in some way as an outmoded idea by redefining it or that they’re supposed to be critiquing the work of H. C-B.; as tutors we don’t really understand why the section has been read like this but the assignment, along with the rest of EYV is being revised and I’m contributing a case study from one of my students to help explain the concept and this assignment more effectively.

You are encouraged to critique it in the sense that one can consciously produce indecisive or non-decisive moments but in order to do that one needs to understand what a decisive moment is, some people are jumping straight to the critique position with out properly understanding the concept of the decisive moment and a spurious motivation.

The minimum requirement of this assignment is that the images should visually demonstrate the understanding of the concept without requiring any explanation or captioning when viewed by those familiar with the concept. It is not enough to say this is a decisive moment because I say it is. The image at the moment of capture should have a significance which is not extant at the moment before or the moment after.

Once that’s achieved the aspiration should be to make images which are not only decisive moments but to make them part of the natural progressive flow of one’s work.

Review the images you’ve made and decide if they meet the base criteria, was the moment you’ve chosen different in its resonance in any significant way from a moment before or after.

I think this really helps clarify what is needed from this assignment.

  • it it NOT a critique of HC-B, but needs to demonstrate and understanding of the concept
  • it should capture a moment in time that is different from the moment before and the moment after.
  • the images should have aesthetic balance

I also had a look at a couple of blogs suggested by the tutors which were held up as demonstrating the required response to the brief

Kate Aston  and David Fletcher 

two very different responses and very interesting.

 

Assignment 3 – The Decisive Moment

Assignment 3 – The Decisive Moment – before and after

Introduction

the brief:

Send a set of between six and eight high-quality photographic prints on the theme of the ‘decisive moment’ to your tutor. Street photography is the traditional subject of the decisive moment, but it doesn’t have to be. Landscape may also have a decisive moment of weather, season or time of day. A building may have a decisive moment when human activity and light combine to present a ‘peak’ visual moment.
You may choose to create imagery that supports the tradition of the ‘decisive moment’, or you may choose to question or invert the concept. Your aim isn’t to tell a story, but in order to work naturally as a series there should be a linking theme, whether it’s a location, an event or a particular period of time.

Research

The Decisive Moment is a concept made popular by Street Photographer; Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB).  It is about capturing images at their optimum moment. That is; when all of the elements in the image reach the point where the environment, the people, the time, the light etc all come together for the perfect composition.

In an interview with Raphaël O’Byrne, for the film: I’amour tout court –  (https://vimeo.com/106009378); HCB says that “most people don’t look properly at their subject, they just press the shutter button, but then he describes one of his most famous images of a man jumping a puddle, to be ‘just luck’.  Later in the film he speaks about how he framed his images using geometry and the ‘divine proportion’ and that he knew instinctively where to find it. 

It is my observation that he created the ‘luck’ by first choosing the right place to be to get an aesthetically pleasing image and then watched and waited for the right thing to happen.  His image of a man on a bike in Hyères, France in 1932 is an example of this. 

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Hyeres, France (1932) – with the divine spiral overlaid to demonstrate his concept.

Photographer and OCA Tutor: Clive White reinforces this assumption with his comment on the OCA forum:

“The decisive moment isn’t an outdated Modernist conceit, it’s an ever present appropriate strategy concerned with when you decided to press the shutter button. It’s the second most important decision the photographer makes after framing.”

Street Photographer Eric Kim; in his article ‘How to Master “The Decisive Moment”’, says that HCB believed that:

  • “The Decisive Moment” was that split second of genius and inspiration that a photographer had to capture a certain moment
  • You can never recreate the same circumstances in terms of location and people.
  • You must constantly be looking for moments to capture,
  • Once that moment is gone, it is gone forever

Before and After

The concept of “The Decisive Moment” is fairly simple and to answer this brief, I believe I need to identify the framing I would like to explore and then wait for the optimum moment.  However, in researching this subject, the idea that “The Decisive Moment” is different from the moment before and the moment after has intrigued me, as one could argue that it is a series of decisive moments.  Therefore, I have decided to explore this concept:

In exploring how I could depict both before and after “The Decisive Moment” I researched photographers using double exposure:

My reviews of their work, can be read in my blog: http://debraflynnphotography.co.uk/EYV-blog/assignment-3-research/.  I really like the idea of multiple decisive moments overlain in one image.

Following the idea of framing the image first, I found a local park which has some ‘art deco’ style shelters with a path running directly alongside it.  Having visited the first time on a very wet day when not much was happening, I was pleased with the initial results and visited a further 4 times to collect my images for this brief.  I did try other areas and places without shelters, but I really liked the structure and framing that the shelter gave me.  I took “The Decisive Moment” as the moment that the person passed me. That remains unseen, so I have captured the before and after.

Each of the final images have areas of clarity and areas for confusion but are held together by the structure of the shelter windows.  They show that the before and after are just as decisive as any moment.  So it’s the photographer’s framing and decision that create “The Decisive Moment”.

Technical approach and evaluation

Photography:

To produce these images, a couple of different methods were employed.

  1. Using a Nikon D810 DSLR on a tripod, taking an image of a person coming towards me and then rotating on the tripod to take an image as they walked away from me. These were combined in photoshop.  Images 1, 2 and 4 are examples of this method
  2. Using a Fujifilm X-t20 mirrorless camera, handheld and using the double exposure option in camera. Images 3, 5 & 6 are examples of this method.

Using the smaller mirrorless camera, was much easier and less conspicuous than the DSLR, and doing the double exposure at the time, meant I had to get it right in camera.  It was easy to use and ultimately more satisfying as there was less editing to do in post-production.  It also felt more authentic.

view contact sheets here

Printing:

The images have been printed using a Canon iP8700 series printer on A4, 179 gsm matte photo paper.  In order to get good quality, the brightness and contrast need to be increased for printing.

Reflection

I feel I have taken a risk with this brief as it would probably have been much easier to just go out and take 6 images of ‘decisive moments’, but that didn’t really interest me.  I have found during this course that I like the juxtapositions of things: In assignment 1 I explored how people used a stretch of the promenade. In assignment 2 – I explored inside and out and to an extent; decisive moments as I tried to capture people doing things.  In this assignment I have explored before and after a specific event.  This realisation has given me a better understanding of what it is I want to say as a photographer, something I have been battling with for a while.

As a way of testing this concept, I entered image #1 in a camera club competition before submitting this assignment.  The critique was very interesting as although it was given good feedback, the reviewer wasn’t aware it was a double exposure.   It would be interesting to see how others perceive the images without prior knowledge of my thinking.  Or does that even matter?

“The Decisive Moment” has taught me that as a photographer you must always think about why you want to press the shutter button at that instant, otherwise why are you even taking the photo.