Henri Cartier Bresson The decisive Moment

How do you know when to press the shutter of your camera? How do you know when you need to take a photograph? How do you decide that this is the moment? This is it! I just have to take a photo.
This is what the French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson was calling the Decisive Moment. That moment of perfect position of the person that it's being photograph in relation to the perfect position of the photographer that takes the photo. It all has to come together perfectly. And this is just a click, a moment, a split of a second.
Henri Cartier Bresson was a French photographer, born in 1908. He is considered the master of candid photography and he was one of the founding members of Magnum Photos. But what he's famous for is this concept of decisive moment that produces a lovely candid photo.
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[@wojciechpanow9723]

SO MANY KNOWLEDGE HERE! Great job you did here. Cartier Bresson is my favourite photographer

[@marcuzas1]

The book “Magnum Contact Sheets” contains the work of Bresson and many of his contemporaries. It was liberating for me to see that many of the iconic photos that come to mind when speaking of Bresson, or those contained in this film, were chosen from a grouping of 24 or more decisive moments taken around that final selection. Quick winding and shooting appears to have been equally as important as being in the right place at the right time. ‘

[@patgordon]

I remember being told that Cartier-Bresson would walk around town with his little camera in his hand behind his back, then when he saw something interesting, he would do a little dance step, raise the camera, snap quickly, and put it behind his back again. Then one day I actually saw a piece of film of him doing just that. I'd love to see it again.

[@ahanarts]

He knew it was coming.

[@marcosdeoliveira9686]

Thank you brother! Beautiful essay, I am trying to study photojournalism and Cartier's thoughts are gold for aspirants. I wish you all the best.

[@absolute1020]

Thank you for the video, a lot of the pictures in the video we have seen a million times, however your commentary makes it a special one, I enjoyed it so much ! thank you !

[@sherristark6679]

Thank you -really enjoyed these photos -just the kind I like to take

[@esfahan1961]

Inspirational is all I have to say. Thank you for sharing and if you ever visit the National Parc of Luberon in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, a few kilometres from my holiday house, do pay a visit to HCB’s 2004 final decisive resting moment at the cemetery of Montjustin.

[@gasparsancoche3049]

Your video quotes extensively from the original Decisive Moment slide show, produced in 1973 by Scholastic Magazine and ICP. The proper thing to do would have been to give attribution, especially since the original slide show is available on KZbin, and we can hear Mr. Cartier-Bresson say many of the things you quote in his own voice.

[@RichardHiston]

Would have been nice if he'd put the hyphen in, as you have. And you'd think a photographer would know to give attribution, and/or ask permission of the Cartier-Bresson Foundation.

[@ArteePhotography]

Nice video essay. I wish there were more of this kind of video. Ted Forbes used to do these, but his channel turned into yet another gear review channel. Would love to see your take on Fang Ho, Michael Kenna or Sebastiao Salgado.

[@BonciuToma]

Cool, thanks!

[@eddienugent2135]

Very nice ...thank you

[@BrunoChalifour]

Nicely done Tom. A few corrections though: 3 images in your presentation are not by HCB. The one at 3 mn seems to have been taken at least by a medium format camera (could be Capa in Palestine in 1948 with a Rolleiflex but I do not know, I just know it is not by HCB). The one at 4 mn 50s is a Helen Levitt photograph and the one at 6 mn 52s is by Robet Doisneau. Now about the "Decisive Moment" as the concept is useful HCB did not really use it. True the phrase "decisive moment" is in the quote by the Cardinal de Retz at the beginning of "Images à la sauvette" (Verve, 1952) but the title given by to the US version (Simon and Schuster, 1952), "The Decisive Moment" was chosen by the publisher not by HCB. To quote what Martine Franck, his wife, and Agnes Sire (the then director of the Fondation Cartier-Bresson) said to me in 2008: he never used the term. Best.

[@BonciuToma]

Thanks for pointing out

[@dry509]

Do you know if Hcb cropped his negatives to improve composition and if he printed his own prints?

[@eduardosiquiercortes7574]

@@dry509 Never. He wrote «“If you start cutting or cropping a good photograph, it means death to the geometrically correct interplay of proportions. Besides, it very rarely happens that a photograph which was feebly composed can be saved by reconstruction of its composition under the darkroom’s enlarger; the integrity of vision is no longer there». He always ordered part of the black border of the negative to be included in his prints of his photographs to show that they were not cropped. However, there was one exception: he had to crop the photo of the man jumping in the puddle because he took it through a fence and it was visible in the frame.

[@tatianasattin5452]

Awesome! You have done a very nice work. Thank you

[@Hollywoodtintmobiletinting]

Thank you 🙏🏼

[@simonemull2883]

Thank you so much for that nice Video. I 've enjoyed it. Please Tom, I need more. Greetings from Germany.

[@BonciuToma]

Thank you for the comment

[@jimwallar8920]

My first exposure to real photography was through reading Edward Weston’s day books back in the 70’s. His work story might be a good one for this type of video.

[@BonciuToma]

thank you for the comment

[@eduardosiquiercortes7574]

The photograph that appears at minute 2:29 is not by Henri Cartier-Bresson but by Helen Levitt.

[@duschbrauser]

Thx for the great video. One photographer I really adore is Steve McCurry. That would be awesome 😉

[@BonciuToma]

👍

[@floorclean]

Nice! Thanks.

[@dimitristsagdis7340]

Very nice, I thought you were also going to touch/include the end of his photography and later career to drawing as I think he maybe realised that you can pursue the ‘decisive moment’ only so far. Maybe he reached his zenith and couldn’t develop further as an artist within photography. At any rate tnx for sharing.

[@BonciuToma]

It's strange but lately I'm also drawing more and more. It's a a nice feeling to have absolute control. The only problem is that it takes time to develop this skill

[@dimitristsagdis7340]

Photo Tom yeah ! I went the other way started with cartoons through engineering kind of drawings to photography cause I wasn’t as skilled or patient :-)))

[@stephenreed7769]

Great job Tom ✨👍

[@BonciuToma]

Thank you so much 😀

[@pamcenter371]

Fabulous I am interested in any and all other photographers you want to share love Listening to your voice

[@axyelll]

Awesome presetstion!

[@BonciuToma]

Thanks!

[@jamessharp1321]

What books do you suggest of Henri Cartier Bresson? I'm in search of one to start with by this great photographer. JAMES SHARP

[@dry509]

Did he print his own prints? Did he crop his negatives to improve composition?

[@sputumtube]

No to the first question and yes to the second. They were developed and printed for him. He would choose the best and crop accordingly. I think (but am not certain) that's why many of his images are not well focused (being crops of larger images). It's worth reading some books about him (and watching KZbin vids). He had a very interesting life.

[@dry509]

@@sputumtube Thanks..with cropping of course one can make some powerful compositions.

[@eduardosiquiercortes7574]

@@sputumtube Definitely not! Cartier-Bresson never, never cropped his photographs and ordered that part of the negative's black border be included in prints of his photographs to show that they were not cropped. In one of the books he wrote «If you start cutting or cropping a good photograph, it means death to the geometrically correct interplay of proportions. Besides, it very rarely happens that a photograph which was feebly composed can be saved by reconstruction of its composition under the darkroom’s enlarger; the integrity of vision is no longer there».

[@eduardosiquiercortes7574]

@@dry509 Cartier-Bresson never, never cropped his photographs and ordered that part of the negative's black border be included in prints of his photographs to show that they were not cropped. In one of the books he wrote «If you start cutting or cropping a good photograph, it means death to the geometrically correct interplay of proportions. Besides, it very rarely happens that a photograph which was feebly composed can be saved by reconstruction of its composition under the darkroom’s enlarger; the integrity of vision is no longer there».

[@sputumtube]

@@eduardosiquiercortes7574 A quote from his book "The Decisive Moment" which has become a bible to photographers the world over. However, reading other books about HCB might offer a little more perspective with regards to his eloquent (French to English translation) about what he said as opposed to what he did.

[@sputumtube]

I love some (but not all) of H.C.B.'s work, although it's important to note that for every image he was famous for, he took perhaps thirty or forty images that were discarded. He never developed or printed his own photographs either. Of course, being born into wealth it hardly mattered.

[@Maartenols]

Thanks for this. It was inspiring. 🖤🤍

[@vinayakbhat9325]

GoodStuff !!

[@BonciuToma]

thank you for your time

[@qwe1231]

'Interesting photos everywhere if you scratch it'... yet he abandoned photography in favor of drawing when he was in his early sixties, which is interesting. Seems he stopped finding photography interesting enough, and chose a medium entirely dependent on one's imagination and skill, as opposed to candid photography which requires finding subjects, gesture, light etc.

[@BonciuToma]

From time to time you need a change

[@georgetuton5946]

Answer the question, "who am I?" Then be that person when you capture the experience.

[@BonciuToma]

true

[@matt1thu]

Decisive Moment was the American title of the book, which he hated. It’s not his philosophy.

[@69photos]

Thank you for your work on this presentation!

[@andrew_met]

Cool you’re from Russia right?