decisivemoment

The Indecisive Moment: Street Photography and AI

I’ve spent countless hours walking streets both near and far from home with My Precious in my hand and a muscle memory for it in my fingers that made it effectively part of me — an extension of my arm. My Precious is, of course, my camera.

The Decisive Moment: What Henri Cartier-Bresson Actually Meant

The photographic master Henri Cartier-Bresson made some key observations about photography, translated as “the decisive moment” which is often (incorrectly) characterized as: "capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself."

Tips for Capturing Humanity in Street Photos

Henri Cartier-Bresson, the "father" of street photography, believed that the mission of the photographer was to patiently and deliberately wait with camera in hand for that unique instant that will never again be repeated. He identified this time as the photographer’s Decisive Moment.

6 Lessons Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach the Modern Photographer

I love looking in detail at another photographer’s work. To immerse yourself in someone else’s creativity—to see what their ideas spark inside of you, what excites you, what makes you sit up and think 'Wow, that’s really cool!'—that’s all great fuel for your own photography.

Dallas Photojournalist Snaps Photo of Gunman From Just Feet Away

A gunman was shot dead by police in downtown Dallas yesterday morning after opening fire outside a federal building. Veteran photojournalist Tom Fox was on the block when the shooting started, and he managed to bravely capture a photo of the masked man staring down the sidewalk into his camera.

‘Projectile Vomit’ Street Photo Goes Viral

If you're easily grossed out, you might want to close this story now. It's about one of the most viral and popular street photos that was shared on the Internet this month, and it's definitely an... unusual one.

The Playful Street Photography of Pau Buscató

Pau Buscató is a street photographer who has a knack for capturing playful moments in which subjects and scenes come together in curious ways for brief moments of time. Many of his pictures are illusions that may cause you to stare a little longer to understand what it is you're actually seeing.

The Decisive Position: What’s the Best Photo of Phelps and Le Clos?

It may seem counterintuitive, but even a sports action photo can tell a story in a 1/1000th of a second, and the Rio Olympics men’s 200m butterfly final provided a perfect opportunity to analyze the role of not only the decisive moment, but decisive position in telling a story.

The Decisive Moment and the Brain

As a photographer, you will sooner or later bump into the phrase "the decisive moment". The decisive moment is a concept made popular by the street photographer, photojournalist, and Magnum co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson. The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.

The Decisive Moment is Dead. Long Live the Constant Moment

We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.
-- Henri Cartier-Bresson

We exist on a treadmill of forgetting and anticipating. We labor to preserve what we treasure of our past, even while the present shotguns us with a thousand new options, one of which must become our future. One of which we must choose.

In this maelstrom of time it is hard to be calm; to understand what warrants attention, and what can be ignored. This state of tranquility and presence has been the essence of the modern photographic act, best characterized in the popular mind by Cartier-Bresson's concept of the "Decisive Moment."