HCB Appreciation

[Pieter12]

And I think he probably regretted ever mentioning the "decisive moment".

"The Decisive Moment" was one of a long list of suggested titles for HCB's book. The original, French title is "Images a la Sauvette" which translates roughly as "Images on the Run (or in Haste)." Actually, HCB's preferred initial title was "A Pas de Loup" (Tiptoeing). The U.S. publisher did not like that title in English and asked HCB fro some alternatives. "The Decisive Moment" was chosen, but I don't know that it was really HCB's philosophy or hard and fast rule. He just got stuck with it as a consequence.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

"The Decisive Moment" was one of a long list of suggested titles for HCB's book. The original, French title is "Images a la Sauvette" which translates roughly as "Images on the Run (or in Haste)." Actually, HCB's preferred initial title was "A Pas de Loup" (Tiptoeing). The U.S. publisher did not like that title in English and asked HCB fro some alternatives. "The Decisive Moment" was chosen, but I don't know that it was really HCB's philosophy or hard and fast rule. He just got stuck with it as a consequence.

The term "l'instant décisif" comes from the excerpt from the Cardinal de Retz's Mémoires that Henri Cartier-Bresson put as an epigraph to his preface to Images à la sauvette. It reads:

"Il n'y a rien dans le monde qui n'ait son instant décisif, et le chef-d'oeuvre de la bonne conduite est de connaître et prendre ce moment."

HCB, I believe, only kept the first part of the sentence [Edit: after checking, indeed, only the first part was used]. The Mémoires were published in 1717, so the original intent or meaning of the expression had little to do with photography.

 

[cliveh]

I would suggest that 'the decisive moment' associated with the work of HCB is only one factor. The timing, framing and composition coupled with he tonal arrangement within the scene make the genius of his images.

 

[cliveh]

Look at the focus, echo of shapes, framing and timing. The Lionel Messi of photography.

 

[Pieter12]

I would suggest that 'the decisive moment' associated with the work of HCB is only one factor. The timing, framing and composition coupled with he tonal arrangement within the scene make the genius of his images.

That is pretty much how HCB defined the decisive moment.

 

[bernard_L]

I feel this image belongs in the category decisive moment. Do you? 1/2 second later or earlier it would have been meh.

Best of Random Gallery Pics

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/gallerysoft/photo/277976

www.rangefinderforum.com

 

[Hassasin]

And taking countless shots of same scene to get to "decisive moment" definition, LOL.

 

[snusmumriken]

I feel this image belongs in the category decisive moment. Do you? 1/2 second later or earlier it would have been meh.

Best of Random Gallery Pics

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/gallerysoft/photo/277976

www.rangefinderforum.com

That link takes me to a street photo with in the foreground a tattooed lady wearing a white hat and on her phone. Is that the photo you are referring to?

 

[Don_ih]

Is that the photo you are referring to?

If so, it's an out-of-focus decisive moment.

@cliveh -- That photo is .... dull? I've been in a lot of shopping malls and airports.

 

[nikos79]

Over the time my admiration of HCB has deteriorated a bit.
For example his detest on editing (always sent his photos to a lab) or cropping . His habit (which had influenced many photographers Dave Heath among others which he admitted it regretfully) of leaving four black margins on the photo to prove it. His dogmatic views toward music etc.
He has said some very significant things though. For example (taking it from https://www.rivellis.gr/en/on-teach...ers-and-their-work/2763-henri-cartier-bresson)

"My greatest joy is geometry. That is, the structure. You don't go out to photograph shapes and forms, but it's an aesthetic joy, and simultaneously an intellectual joy, to have everything in the right place. It's the recognition of an order that is in front of you."

"You must be yourself and at the same time forget yourself, so that the image comes out stronger."

"You must not think. Ideas are very dangerous. You must think continuously. But when you photograph, you're not trying to explain something or prove something. You're not proving anything."

"I enjoy taking pictures, to be present. It's a way to say: yes, yes, yes! And there's no maybe. All the maybes should be thrown in the trash. Because it's a moment. It's a presence. It's there. And it's respect and joy, tremendous joy to say: yes! Even if it's something you hate: yes!. It's an affirmation: yes!"

Mind in the last one the word "maybe" vs the word "yes". This is what he meant with the "decisive moment"
In my opinion The early HCB is amazing, the late one has lost his inspiration

 

[nikos79]

If so, it's an out-of-focus decisive moment.

@cliveh -- That photo is .... dull? I've been in a lot of shopping malls and airports.

This image has no composition or form sorry to say it. Decisive moment is not about capturing some random event but to put everything in order inside your four frames in the millisecond

 

[Don_ih]

"Decisive moment", really, is a bit of showmanship for a photographer - it's nothing an audience has access to. It sounded better than "I stood around waiting for the right time to take the photo."

 

[bernard_L]

That link takes me to a street photo with in the foreground a tattooed lady wearing a white hat and on her phone. Is that the photo you are referring to?

correct

If so, it's an out-of-focus decisive moment.

Sharpness is a bourgeois concept

This image has no composition or form sorry to say it.

Not in the sense of key elements at the 1/3rds, or a strong diagonal, etc. But the various characters seem to me related. Just my feeling. Of course de gustibus non disputandum est.

 

[nikos79]

"Decisive moment", really, is a bit of showmanship for a photographer - it's nothing an audience has access to. It sounded better than "I stood around waiting for the right time to take the photo."

Yes he did that when he took that photo of the girl emerging within the lights and shadows in Sifnos, Greece he was waiting for an hour for the girl to pass. This is a very bad way of photographing - in my humble opinion. Again something I have against HCB

 

[nikos79]

correct

Sharpness is a bourgeois concept

Not in the sense of key elements at the 1/3rds, or a strong diagonal, etc. But the various characters seem to me related. Just my feeling. Of course de gustibus non disputandum est.

I took a look at your galleries, they all have a strong sense of form without any elements that are not needed in the photo, a strict and concise composition which I find appealing. Can you say that with that photo? Apart from the central figure which is the tattooed lady (which frankly I don't know why it should be of interest to me) all the other elements in the photo are useless, visual noise as you call them.

 

[Don_ih]

This is a very bad way of photographing

Sorry, that's a bit of a silly statement. There's nothing wrong with anticipating a scene in a setting and waiting for something interesting to happen. Was he supposed to leave and come back?

 

[Alex Benjamin]

This is a very bad way of photographing

There is no such thing.

 

[nikos79]

Sorry, that's a bit of a silly statement. There's nothing wrong with anticipating a scene in a setting and waiting for something interesting to happen. Was he supposed to leave and come back?

He should have done nothing. Maybe this goes to the other thread about taking vs making a photograph. He was clearly making one

 

[nikos79]

There is no such thing.

True it is more personal preference sorry to not having stated it. I prefer more the "instinctively" way of doing it vs contemplating for an hour about an image

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I prefer more the "instinctively" way of doing it vs contemplating for an hour about an image

Thing is, they both are instinctive. It's just that we all have different instincts, and they take us in different directions.

 

[Don_ih]

I prefer more the "instinctively" way of doing it vs contemplating for an hour about an image

You may need to take more photos. Not every photo is of a trapeze act. Some photos are of chess matches.

 

[koraks]

This is a very bad way of photographing - in my humble opinion.

You've learned to add the 'humble opinion' clause. Now ask yourself whether that solves it. Hint: it's not like applying curly braces to your C++-code and hey presto, it compiles.

 

[snusmumriken]

Was he supposed to leave and come back?

 

[snusmumriken]

de gustibus non disputandum est

I was just surprised to find myself looking at that particular photo as an example of the decisive moment concept. I don’t mean to argue with your taste, but for me it bears no comparison with HCBs own photos.

 

[Vaughn]

I have always held that taking an hour to set up, compose and expose a sheet of film is as spontaneous as photographing the street with a 35mm camera.

The spontaneous moment is when the brain decides to make (or take) an image. How long it takes to carry out that decision is of no great importance (as long as one has enough time to complete the task.)

YMMD