The Decisive Moment

I have studied photography for years.I had my first darkroom when I was twelve. I pursued this interest throughout my life. I experimented with different films and styles and finally stuck with straight forward photography. Photo shop, can duplicate my early infra red efforts and darkroom magic, double exposures etc. I have also discovered with the advent of so many quality point and shoot cameras that if you give an infinite number of neophytes an infinite number of cameras, eventually someone is going to create a masterpiece.
This is a picture of Boz my former advisor. I am jealous of the photo because it truly captures the "decisive moment" to quote Henri Cartier Bresson who is quoted below. This photo is a masterpiece created by a neophyte, he caught the decisive moment , something I have been struggling my whole life to achieve. I hang my head in shame, life is not fair and so what~` I will carry on by God with the full knowledge there is little chance of matching let alone eclipsing the artistry in this photograph. JWW


Henri quote:
For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.

To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

To take a photograph 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.

Henri Cartier Bresson