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Pastimes : Digital Photography -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Buckley who wrote (8012)	6/20/2004 10:18:03 AM
From: Done, gone.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21663

Does that book contain HCB's piece about the decisive moment? I'm presently in NYC and the book is in Mpls so I can't check right now but if I remember correctly, yes. In any case, I belive this is the decisive moment quote: "To take photographs means to recognize - simultaneously and within a fraction of a second - both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis." While on this subject, I simply must post this: Of course, as has been said before The Decisive Moment never really existed. The original title of HCB's essay was 'Images a la sauvette', which has nothing top do with "Decisive Moment" - the rest I'll leave in the capable hands of the LUG archive: QUOTE: "The original title, as others have mentioned, is 'Images a la sauvette'. As usual there are lots of possible ways to translate it, none of them as absurd as 'THE DECISIVE MOMENT'. Off the top of my head: Images on the run Fugitive Images Images on the fly Images in a hurry Fleeting Images Glances In fact, perhaps the best English translation would be (and this is what I call my portfolio of US pictures) 'Very Quick on the Eye'. Hands off! It's mine! The point is, IMAGES A LA SAUVETTE has no sense of 'decision' in it, but reflects, IMHO, the true nature of HCB's work as a kind of supercondensed snapshot in which geometric relations between people and things snap into a kind of perfect but unstable equilibrium... a stasis, where things just hang there, like a marble perfectly balance on the top of an upturned wok, which won't be there the next time you look back. I don't know where 'The Decisive Moment' comes from but it sounds like one of those snappy titles editors come up with... the easy familiarity of a cliche, like CUTTING EDGE or INSIDE STORY or STREET LEGAL or any one of a thousand documentary TV shows which promise, but rarely deliver, an insight into the real world. Titles like these are easy to write essays about, but doesn't, for me, capture the essence of HCB's work which he himself described as 'antigraphic' photography in his first US exhibition. I've thought this 'absurd' thought for years, but was very pleased to read Colin Westerbeck's essay on HCB in BYSTANDER, in which he says: "THE DECISIVE MOMENT is misleading as a translation, for the moment referred to is that just before a decision is made, the moment of aniticipation rather than conclusion... the instant being described is the one when you are just about to take off, the point at which the shortstop is ready to dash in any direction as he watches the batter step into the ball, or when the pickpocket waits for his victim to be distracted so that he can strike". Johnny Deadman" END QUOTE mejac2.palo-alto.ca.us ______________ Johnny Deadman is the alias of John Brownlow, an excellent photographer and screenwriter ("Sylvia" sylviamovie.com being his latest). Here is his site, well worth a bookmark: pinkheadedbug.com

To: Mike Buckley who wrote (8012)	6/21/2004 7:42:53 AM
From: Done, gone.	Respond to of 21663

Found the whole "decisive moment" quote: _________________ "Manufactured" or staged photography does not concern me. And if I make a judgement, it can only be on a psychological or sociological level. For me, the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity and the master of the instant, which questions and decides simultaneously. In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. To take photographs means to recognize both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's hearth on the same axis. As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is means of understanding, which can not be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shooting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It is a way of life. Henri Cartier-Bresson ________________________________ Oh, and Mike, forgot to answer your question about the alternative HCB photo of the children in Spain. The two images which were posted here already are the only ones I've seen. Never saw a third one -- does not mean it doesn't exist. I just haven't seen it.