le moment décisif
I was reading an article by Eamonn McCabe in the Feb 2008 issue of Black & White Photography on legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson’s le moment décisif (the decisive moment). Here are some quotes that I thought were very interesting and to some extent insightful…
Cartier-Bresson on the decisive moment…
“Il n’ya a rien dans ce monde qui n’ait un moment decisif” (There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment)
McCabe on his Canon 5D…
“What I do now is take too many pictures, because I can. I shoot as if I have a machine gun in my hand. I take a few to check the exposure and mutter to the sitter – Don’t worry about these they are just a test. I’ve lost my nerve completely, I never used to do a test – the first picture often used to be my best”
Cartier-Bresson on creativity in photography…
“Photography is not like painting. There is creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative”
