Alberto Giacometti in Studio – Henri Cartier-Bresson – circa 1952
Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the birth of photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. I first became familiar with the work of Cartier-Bresson through some of his subjects – Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Calder, Giacometti and Duchamp.
In 1952, Cartier-Bresson authored Images à la sauvette, whose English edition was titled The Decisive Moment. In it, he discussed the philosophy of his art by building on a concept articulated by Cardinal de Retz, “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment”
In a 1957 Washington Post interview Cartier-Bresson discussed this concept by saying:
“Photography is not like painting. There is a 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. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”
Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.
Words as true in life as they are in art as we each face our own “decisive moments.”
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