{"id":786,"date":"2013-02-26T02:36:39","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T08:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rickspicscorner.com\/blog\/?p=786"},"modified":"2013-02-26T02:43:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T08:43:44","slug":"history-of-photography-in-the-20th-century-journal-entry-26-feb-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/history-of-photography-in-the-20th-century-journal-entry-26-feb-13\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Photography in the 20th Century Journal Entry – 26 Feb 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up to this point, I have only heard 1 dimension of Cartier-Bression\u2019s \u201cDecisive Moment.\u201d The dimension revealed was that the photograph hinged on catching that particular moment that defined the image.\u00a0 I was never aware that Cartier-Bresson wrote in-depth about this topic.\u00a0 Admittedly, I never really looked into it until I had the excerpt from his own writings in front of me.\u00a0 In reading Cartier-Bresson\u2019s own words regarding \u201cThe Decisive Moment,\u201d it is revealed that Cartier-Bresson not only looked for that magical moment, but he also obsessed over the composition of the photograph.\u00a0 It still all boils down to that one moment, but this adds depth.<\/p>\n

Composition, according to Cartier-Bresson, is a reflexive action – the photographer knows instinctively when everything comes together.\u00a0\u00a0 It is in that instant that the shutter is released.\u00a0 Of course, there are times when the \u201csnap\u201d of the photo is delayed because the photographer knows that an element is missing (or out of place) that does not complete the composition.<\/p>\n

Geometry is also an important factor in composition.\u00a0 It is the geometry that ties all the elements together.\u00a0 This could be seen as conflicting with the \u201cmissing\u201d element, but it\u2019s easy to realize that proper geometry may be the missing element that causes the photographer to refrain from releasing the shutter.<\/p>\n

Cartier-Bresson, in talking about the Decisive Moment, seems to tell photographers that it\u2019s ok to rely on instinct when shooting.\u00a0 Much like the actions of a soldier in combat or a basketball player on the court, the reflexive knowledge of when the moment is right based on composition is more a product of instinct and training than anything else.\u00a0 This becomes hard to resolve as in art school the students are taught to eschew their instincts in favor of carefully consideration of the scene before them and only shooting after an intellectual analysis has been performed.\u00a0 To wit, one student in class even mentioned that she couldn\u2019t shoot under conditions where she wasn\u2019t able to plan the shots.<\/p>\n

A lot of the other photographers we\u2019ve seen up to this point (with some exceptions) in this class have constructed their shots (Rothstein comes to mind) or, in the case of many FSA photographers, have shot according to a script.\u00a0 Cartier-Bresson, while he may have been on assignment (with or without a script), reacted to the scene before him.\u00a0 While I can construct a scene, I find much more freedom in being able to react to what\u2019s in front of me.<\/p>\n

One final note – Cartier-Bresson regards cropping as ruinous to photography.\u00a0 It can be inferred that cropping is almost akin to second-guessing one\u2019s instincts as it ruins the flow of what made the photographer release the shutter in the first place.\u00a0 In the very first photography class I ever took, the professor prohibited cropping of any kind on our silver gelatin prints.\u00a0 Her rationale was that we did not learn how to compose in the viewfinder by cropping in the darkroom.\u00a0 This is definitely in line with Cartier-Bresson regarding composition.\u00a0 Cartier-Bresson also opines that a poorly composed photograph is never going to be saved by cropping.<\/p>\n

\"HCB1951025W01282\/24C\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is perhaps the best example of what Cartier-Bresson is trying to communicate in his essay.\u00a0 The geometric shapes create self-contained units, with each having a quantity of people assigned.\u00a0 The people are arranged in such a way that they form their own discreet lines.\u00a0 Cartier-Bresson is helping us to cultivate the instincts needed to achieve images like this, but how does art school help us in that?<\/p>\n

Below are 2 versions of one of my photographs \u2013 the original version and the cropped version \u2013 taken less than 2 months ago.\u00a0 In this case cropping was necessary in order to remove the camera tilt from the scene.\u00a0 If the camera tilt had remained, the scene would not have been accurately represented in the frame.\u00a0 I wonder if Cartier-Bresson ever had to shoot a football game and find a way to operate within a specific area of the field and under technological limitations (this case being the reach of the lens).\u00a0 Also, let\u2019s not forget that these 2 rather large men are barreling toward me at a rate of speed that does not allow for very quick stopping.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_2952\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Meineke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up to this point, I have only heard 1 dimension of Cartier-Bression\u2019s \u201cDecisive Moment.\u201d The dimension revealed was that the photograph hinged on catching that particular moment that defined the image.\u00a0 I was never aware that Cartier-Bresson wrote in-depth about this topic.\u00a0 Admittedly, I never really looked into it until I had the excerpt from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793,"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}