The Decisive moment is a photography book by the world renowned Parisian photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. The book focuses on his incredible composition and eye when it comes to capturing very precise moments. He treats his images as instant drawings, he will spend hours waiting for the right moment where he will capture a mili-second out of hours that wont ever be replicated again. An important factor in his work is that he has incredible patience, fans of his work have said that he has been everywhere and had seen everything, since he began his career he has been present during many significant moments in modern history. His carefully thought out composition sets his pictures apart, he has stated that he has sat still for half an hour waiting for something to come into the frame.
FIRST RESPONSE
My first response to Bresson's work shows images taken around the awkwardly quiet Thomas Tallis, the strangely silent afternoon made it hard to capture images in the essence of Bresson, I don't really like any of the photos that much, although I focused on composition and lines I feel like the subjects of the images was too bland and boring.
NICK WAPPINGTON'S INDESISIVE MOMENTO
Nick Wappington is a British photographer who has collaborated with artists such as the late Alexander McQueen. His work is notable for its lack of subject matter and use of specific photographical techniques, his work ethic is often unordered and messy, however this doesn't devalue his work, in fact it makes it even more special.His spin off "The Indecisive Momento" project consisted of an eight week journey to Southern and North America, the goal of the project was to redefine the ideas that had been previously set by Cartier Bresson in his "The decisive moment". He photographs what he feels is important to him and the world that we live in today. Wappington is on record saying how he feels that he shouldn't be defined as just a photographer because his work spans over multiple creative mediums such as poetry and painting. In his studio space he likes to keep as much stuff as possible just incase it might be of use to him during a later project.
THE DECISIVE MOMENT PERSONAL RESPONSE
We were given the task to create a series of photos inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson and his infamous book "The Decisive Moment", the first section of the task was to shoot a reel of black and white film, I chose to take my series of images in SOHO in central London, I spend a lot of time in that area and have witnessed how busy and full of life it is. The day that I decided to go and take my images had a very strange cold yet very very bright light, which was good for the types of pictures I was trying to take. I was mainly looking out for interesting people and shapes, the idea of lines was a very important concept for me, by taking images with lots of lines there was almost a grid being formed making it easy to create interesting compositions. After taking the images to be developed I created my contact sheets, I used 5 second intervals in order to get a better grasp of what timings to use whilst creating my prints. I then used 1 second intervals from 12 to 15 seconds, this gave an even more accurate idea of timings.
FINAL IMAGES
My response to the (In)decisive moment project resulted in 4 pictures taken whilst on my journey. After shooting and getting the negatives developed we had to learn the process of printing our Black and White film images. Looking at my contact sheets I selected the images that I felt would work best, for each image I experimented and created multiple prints which tested various timings in order to find the best exposure. The first image was taken on oxford street, I chose to print this photo because I very much like how I composed the picture, on the far left hand side you can see the reflection of passers by, on the right hand side you can see a couple walking towards me, however the most eye-catching part of the image is the crepe stand which is just left of centre. After multiple prints I decided to select the image that had been exposed for 7 seconds, unlike the other prints this image showed the detail of the building works in the background. In the top right hand side there is too much light, this creates a juxtaposition with the dark, detailed centre and left side. After the various differing exposure times I concluded that the under exposed look of the light sky was result of the deep white winter sky present on the day I took the image. The second image was taken earlier on my journey, whilst walking through Soho I noticed the barred window of the corner shop. My personal favourite part of the image is the various promotional posters for Coke that had been slightly masked by the windows cage. Whilst printing I exposed the photographic paper for 8 seconds, the outcome of this was the slightly cloudy effect that fills the image and gives it a ghostly feeling. I composed the image to try and capture the sort of garden and tree that would be shown on the left hand side of the frame. The third image was from the very start of my journey, it was taken almost as soon as I walked out of Charring Cross train station, the day of me taking my images must of overlapped with some sort of latin American festival, through-out the day I saw multiple people dressed in masks and special costumes. After numerous attempts at trying to capture the perfect exposure time I managed to expose the paper for 6 seconds, this allowed there to be a good contrast between the dark shades and the light. Whilst taking the image I had seconds to capture the image before the people moved, I quickly composed the image so that there were multiple rows of people in costume, the man in the mask is almost exactly central in the frame making him very eye catching, I have also noticed that the sale sign in the window behind the people is surprisingly eye catching and draws the viewers eye. The fourth and final image was taken last on my journey, whilst standing in Mcdonalds I noticed three workers standing in formation right behind the counter, I framed the image so that they would be central in the frame with the rest of the goings on happening around them. Whilst developing the printed image I ripped the paper on the left hand side, once dry I cut the jagged edge off and decided to use the image despite the rip, I then cut the right side off so that my starting idea for my image could come into reality. From this project I learnt how to print images from film which I think will help me greatly in the future seeing as I love to shoot on film.