Choice of Moment
A friend of mine once expressed her understanding of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment this way: the moment when the height of tension in the scene you are capturing intersects with the height of composition. It is often judged “decisive” only in hindsight, and it has often generated a lot of discussion as to the exact nature of what Cartier-Bresson was on about. One thing is certain: the intention behind the decisive moment theory is that timing matters. To deny this is to deny that composition matters; both timing and composition intersect better at some moments than others. Shoot 100 frames of two people having a discussion at a streetside café—all from the same angle—and some will be much stronger than others. Some ...
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