The Decisive Moment

Although Henri Cartier- Bresson died in 2004, his impact on modern photography has been incalculable. To Bresson, photography was intuitive and inherently creative- the “decisive moment” expressed the essential meaning of an event or action. To Bresson, photography was “putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis.”

As I have become more and more involved with photography, I have realized that another still life of well-lighted fruit is all well and good, but engaging photography should include the decisive moment. Sure, one might look at an image of a beautifully iced carrot cake and say, “Wow, doesn’t that look delicious!” Yet, that person has not truly engaged with the image, they have merely paid it a passing glance.

In every act of cooking, I think there lies a decisive moment, and that is what I tried to capture this week. I think that sometimes photographers become overly concerned with clarity and eye-popping color, when the human element is what really matters. The final product (an image of salmon, asparagus, etc.) delights the head and the eye, but it cannot reach the heart. Only a human connection made through the decisive moment can align the head, the eye, and the heart on the same axis.

1 Comment

Filed under Miscellaneous, The Ocular Omnivore

One response to “The Decisive Moment

  1. I love that there’s motion in each of these images – cooking’s also about the process, not just the finished product :)

Leave a Reply