The Decisive Moment

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer of the 20th century, and is widely regarded as the father of modern journalism. A French churchman of the 17th century named Cardinal de Retz once said, "there is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment". Considered to be an expert on snapshot or candid photography, it's no wonder that Cartier-Bresson's photographs remind the viewer of what Cardinal de Retz referred to as the "decisive moment". Cartier-Bresson's use of the then new Leica 35 mm miniature camera technology enabled him to exploit that "decisive moment" due to the Leica's size, mobility, shutter speed, as well as Cartier-Bresson's unabashed outlook on informal, "not-in-the-studio" portraiture. While the Leica gave Cartier-Bresson a means to take of-the-moment photographs, his method was to travel extensively and to be in the right place at the right time.

One would believe that the concept of the "decisive moment" in regards to image-hosting giants such as Flickr, would play out as millions of "decisive moments" in photographs from around the globe. However, in order for there to be that mastery of the candid photograph that the likes of Cartier-Bresson captured, one has to either have many happy accidents, or be very intentional about when they take a photograph. In today's day and age, Flickr is a web community that enables people from around the world to upload photographs for many different purposes, and many of those photographs are not taken with the intent of any decisive moment, but merely for the purpose of sharing. Because of this, pictures of the kind of decisive moments referred to by Cardinal de Retz are more numerous due to websites like Flickr, but are perhaps captured unintentionally and do not hold the same intensity and gravity that pictures solely taken for the capture of the decisive moment do. Here's an example of what may happen to photographs with and without intent:

Captured with intent:

Captured without intent:

If what Cardinal de Retz said about everything having a decisive moment is true, then it follows that Museum of Modern Art curator, Dan Leers would have many of them on his transition from Lawrence University to the New York art world. Interestingly, Leers referenced many decisive moments that led him to the many experiences of his life during his lecture at Lawrence, including his classes taken at Lawrence, moving to the west coast, his time spent in west Africa, and his time at Columbia University. Dan Leers encouraged those at the lecture to try and explore a diverse range of subjects while at Lawrence, and it seemed as though his message to his audience was that by expanding your interests and exploring your world, you enable yourself to experience more of life's decisive moments.