Bresson believed that photography was about capturing the perfect, decisive moment. It was spontaneous, yet planned as he would sometimes observe his subjects for hours before taking his decisive shot. I believe this approach is very interesting and has merit in the sense that capturing your subject in their natural environment and producing a a viable interesting piece is a very difficult thing to do in one shot, but the payoff of a successful shot of a decisive moment is well worth it, because you can capture some truly authentic moments that really add emotion to your piece and captures the human experience in a way that can have way more substance than your typical portrait or candid.
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Bresson discusses how he takes his photos, the most important aspect being the exact moment you capture when taking a photo. He says you cannot redo a moment or make a person reenact the same facial expression or movements exactly as they were. Being decisive was a strong point he made in this video. He also discussed how he would wait in one place for a subject to come by and take a picture at the perfect moment. I appreciate how natural he wants his photos to be and the time and effort he will put in to get the perfect photo.
Photojournalism is a form of journalism that uses photos to document current events – in other words story telling. Henri Cartier Bresson, birthed photojournalism through his beautifully crafted portfolio of photographs taken throughout his life in different parts of the world. Bresson knew compositional elements can come together in a decisive moment by knowing that the person behind the lens must be present. Bresson believed a good picture can be determined by even a millimeter and that grasping photos, being quick enticed the question of “when”? When will I find a subject in perfect correlation with other objects/leading lines in the frame? He loved the notion of geometry being present because that meant the photo has a sense of structure. “A photograph is an immediate sketch, done with intuition” Bresson mentions this in his 1973 short clip “The Decisive Moment”. I strongly believe that divergent components can come together, in an instant. By being aware of the subject, the shapes, the light source, the leading lines, and the environment and how they are in relation with each other, naturally captures an authentic composition. With the world constantly changing and being created in every moment, this gives infinite new arrangement of things,
In photography, you cannot take the same photo twice. Bresson believes photos should be taken at the decisive moment because you can’t go back in time. That timeframe cannot be repeated. When taking a photo, his main focus is in the geometric lines, curves, angles and shapes that form to help compliment the focus of the photo. Bresson stays alert and don’t hesitate to take a photo when the right opportunity arrives. Hesitating will only cause the risk of being noticed and losing what you wanted to capture.
Bresson believes that photography doesn’t require any setups, it’s a natural process where a photographer tries to capture things that happen naturally. Different event takes place every day and people experience and give different reactions based that particular events or based on their moods on a specific day. These reactions and gestures happen only once in life which can never be repeated again to be exactly the same. Bresson states that you cant ask people to repeat the same smile or mood because those reactions were based on different experiences that the individuals faced at a specific time period. Bresson’s goal is not to wait and ask the person to perform the reaction again but to be present and capture that experience which leads to different emotions and reactions. Bresson also loves geometric shapes, he mentions that it photographers can easily search for shapes and patterns and capture them but he loves finding shapes in unique positions or in a place where it looks visually amusing for example, he showed little square-shaped holes forming a pattern in a wall, a child holding a rectangular-shaped portrait and some shadows forming different shapes. For portraits, Bresson says that he likes to capture individuals in their own environment or habitat just like those who capture animal photos without disturbing them. Bresson says that when he tries to capture people’s photos he tries not to make them feel uncomfortable, and make it so they don’t feel bothered by his presence. When people notice him taking their photo, it loses the originality because they often try to present a character of themselves before the camera which is completely different from their original character. Bresson never waits or thinks of how the photograph will look like, he waits in a place that he likes and takes his time and waits for the perfect moment, for example- he waits for someone to pass by that area or maybe for a breeze. Instead of clicking random pictures, he clicks a couple of them in different moments or with different elements on them.
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