The Decisive Moment, Explained
“Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes the precise moment. We play with things that disappear and that, once disappeared, it is impossible to revive. For us, what disappears, disappears forever: hence our anguish and also the essential originality of our trade.”
“What comes out of that camera is no stranger to the economy of a world of waste, where tensions are increasingly intense and where the ecological consequences are already excessive.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Every street photographer eventually stumbles upon the dogmatic term of the “decisive moment”, and is almost certain that they hear it from someone quoting the French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson. It is true that he coined this term, but it wasn’t meant to be dogma, but more of a personal mantra.
This beautiful term that has become an almost-unreachable goal for many street photographers is so widespread that it has become vastly misunderstood — hence the need to explain how this term should be understood.
The beginning of the concept
To provide some context here, it’s important to say that during the early years of serious photography by Henri Cartier-Bresson (and many other great photographers, like Brassaï, Berenice Abbott, Man Ray, Robert Doisneau, Walker…
