folder Filed in Thoughts, Works by Edward
Speaking of Henri Cartier-Bresson
Edward Suhadi comment 0 Comments

The man is one of my photography heroes, and I know that I am one of millions. With a Leica in hand, he wanders the streets of the world, mainly Paris, and shot these photographs so beautifully composed and so precisely frozen that it came to feel ‘magical’ (well at least for me).

Cartier-Bresson coined the term “The Decisive Moment” (also a book title written by him) meaning that a split tenth of second, or maybe narrower, is the perfect moment to capture something. Other than that, the moment is lost. It’s the decisive moment. And remember, that was not the time of LCD instant view and 11 frame per second and 51 points of autofocus. That was the time of one click shot and manual focus.

As for us, think about it. Every so called “candid” picture that we took, if we missed it by merely half a second, the moment is lost. The lips have departed. The tears have been wiped. The father blinked. The sister have jumped. The boy has turned.

If you claim yourself as a photojournalist, then you have to sit and watch this documentary of him. Soak in every word and every picture. (follow the YouTube link for the next part)

Now, still call yourself a photojournalist? Shame on you 😀 I feel so little after watching the film that I just wanna grab my camera and go out the door and practice.

“What matters is to look. But people don’t look. Most of them don’t look. They just pressed the button.”
-Henri Cartier-Bresson

If you want to get better at photography: look.
Don’t just press and look at your LCD for like, the 1000th time.
Look.

henri photojournalism