Planned by Accident?
Photographers for hundreds of years have claimed they were in the right place at the right time when an event occurred and they just happened to capture it. But is there such thing as The Decisive Moment? Using evidence from various photographers, I am going to evaluate whether it does indeed exist.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer. He is quoted to have said he gained his photographic skills as a result of his love for cinema and “From some of the great films, [he] learned to look, and to see.” He coined the theory of the decisive moment, the perfect second in a photograph where everything falls into place due to coincidences. Widely considered the Grandfather of Street Photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson has a large range of work using his mysterious decisive moment. The invention of 35mm film in 1913 allowed for the burst of street photography’s evolution due to cameras now being highly portable.
His famous image Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare of a man jumping over a huge puddle but his foot is just about to land in the middle of it. The man is jumping from a piece of scrap wood, possibly a ladder and behind him we can see the silhouette of a man standing in front of a wrought iron fence that is surrounding a cemetery. On the wall there are torn posters advertising something about a “railowsky”. The image is in black and white as coloured film emulsions were slow and caused the image to look cramped and because of this, colour film was largely refined to static objects so Cartier-Bresson would have chosen this as in the streets, things are always moving. However while being the only colour scheme available, Black and white is complimentary to the image as it makes a stark use of contrasts which helps to define the diamond shape made by his reflection joining his legs. This contrasts also highlight the diagonal lines within the image. Neither shades particularly dominate the image they have an equal significance. The question I want to ask is whether he simply happened to be there or if he staged it. The man does not seem to be being used as a tool to point towards any issues withing Paris or the world at the time. The content is immediately apparent as the image quality is very sharp and there does not seem to be any use of metaphor or symbolism. This work was and still is regarded his most famous piece of work. I believe the photo was planned and staged. While I do not think he planned this in length, using sketches and models, I do think he asked the man to jump over the puddle. My reason for this being that the man stood in the background is stood on a pathway which can be seen very clearly and this raises the question as to why the man wouldn’t have just walked across the pathway instead of jumping. The puddle is so large it exits the frame of the image so was clearly too big for the man to jump over. Also, Bresson would have had to be stood somewhere too and this was probably on a dry area as the wate does not have any ripples from anywhere other than the scrap wood the man has jumped from. Logically, the man would have walked via a dry route so the fact that he has not implies he was asked to jump which de-bunks Cartier-Bresson’s claim of a decisive moment. The image inspires a feeling of anxiety in the viewer due to the obvious ending of the mans jump being that he will fall into the water. For me, the work seems to have a sad tone underlying it, the colours seem very dark and the cemetery in the background casts a shadow of death over the entire image. It is a very quiet image, with only to people in it and the water being so still and calm. While feeling sad, the image also reminds me of a comical film of the time where a mistake is made and the character is impacted because of it in order to amuse the audience. The work was not made for any particular people and was not commissioned to be created, photography was just very much a love of Bresson’s and so it was made for his own enjoyment of creating and admiring it. At the time the image was taken, it was just after the first world war, which makes me think whether the cemetery contains the bodies of recently deceased soldiers? Were the two men in the images soldiers? We can never know as they will be forever frozen in time withing the image. It is key to consider the amount that movie palaces increased in this period as Cartier-Bresson is a self-proclaimed lover of films, and credits his photographic success to them. He says that “from some of the great films, [he] learned to look, and to see”*1. Perhaps the influx of places for him to see these great films inspired him artistically and was part of what allowed him to capture such an amazing image.
“You are looking for a single, brilliant moment and 99% of the time, you won’t get it. But remember this: when at last you get that shot you have been looking for, in a thousandth of a second, all those frustrations and near-misses will have paid off.”*2- These are the words of Matt Stuart, one of modern street photography’s most prominent figures. He constantly looks for his work to be an astonishing coincidence of events that all fall in to place in that split second when the aperture closes on his camera. His Trafalgar Square photograph of a man flipping from a podium on which two pillars stand is shocking to see with the man still being in the air. The image has quite dull colours which contrasts to Stuart’s usual images with bright, vibrant colour schemes. Like his picture of a peacock graffiti piece that has Vivid blues and greens running throughout. The green of the grass is the most dominating colour in the image. There is a distinct use of dynamic diagonals, much like Cartier-Bresson’s image. The main subject matter is the man do the backflip; however it isn’t immediately striking. At first, you notice the man sat on the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and only upon further inspection do you see the man backflipping. This is likely because he coincides with the bland colours. When you do first notice the person doing the backflip, it is hard to tell what he is doing, and you consider if he is falling which is a shock as this would induce an anxious feeling. It however does not seem to hold any political or social symbolism. When asked about the image Stuart said the person was a schoolboy who’s friend had asked him to do a summersault and he complied. This is very dissimilar to Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare as Cartier-Bresson never gave an in-detail recall of what sparked his famous picture, which is a large reason of what led me to believe it was staged. Stuarts, detailed description of the events leading up to his image allow me to believe him and consider that maybe the decisive moment does exist. This image was taken in 2016, a year where terrorist attacks were seemingly happening all the time. There were 11,072 terror attacks in 2016, according to reuters.com. So, for many, this striking image will have been refreshing as it has nothing pointing to that awful aspect of the year. The fact it pictures a schoolboy having fun, would bring a smile to people’s faces.
September 11th, 2001. We all instantly know what that day held. The world after this day was never the same. It was the day of the World Trade Centre terrorist attack where two hijacked planes flew directly through the Buildings known as the twin towers. On this day, Photojournalist Richard Drew captured one of the most shocking pictures I have ever seen. Most photographs from that day depict scenes of burning buildings and planes. Falling man is unlike any picture from that day or any other. It is perhaps one of few pictures showing someone dying that day. The man is falling in a vertical position directly aligning with the columns of the twin towers. His body is placed directly in the middle of the separate buildings. The image is in colour, but the colours are all more shades rather than colours. The buildings columns of windows make for a clear contrast. The man’s legs are bent which differs from the rest of the image which follows straight lines and slight diagonals. The work holds together well due to this following of the same shapes and lines. The subject matter of this image is the man who has jumped from the building, Drew said he “was like an arrow bisecting the two world trade centres”*3. The man is extremely important as he is a symbol of how people really did die in this attack and how horrible it was to be inside the buildings. This man felt he had no choice but to jump from potentially 1368 feet from the ground. I can not begin to imagine the horrors he experienced in order to jump instead of stay in there. Why did he jump? It was obvious he would not survive. He may have believed that he would not survive anyway, and that he would rather end it quickly, rather than in pain. This is heart breaking to know that he felt this way. For generations that did not experience 9/11, it can be easy to detach yourselves from tragedy you did not see first-hand and have only heard about; but this image reminds everyone how real it was, how harrowing it was and why it changed the world the way it did. Drew said he stepped off the subway and saw the towers burning and immediately grabbed his camera. He was stood taking pictures when he heard someone shout that people were jumping and instinctively followed them down, photographing them. This is a very real example of the decisive moment. Drew could not have planned this in any way as nobody could have ever predicted this horrific event would take place. He was simply doing his job. He said he never even knew he had the picture of the man in that position until he got back to his office and saw it on his computer. The emotions that this image incite in the viewer shows the true power and significance of photography. The man in the image has never been identified, though it is believed he was an employee of the Windows on the World restaurant on the top of the World Trade Centre’s North Tower. Drew says he received a lot of anger towards him taking this picture but says he will never regret doing so. I think the image is of colossal importance in showing the world the horrors that we are working towards never happening again.
In conclusion, I believe there is such a thing as the decisive moment. However, I do not agree that Henri Cartier-Bresson’s image ‘Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare’ is an example of this. I believe Bresson asked the man to stage the image to claim this photographic phenomenon. Photography is a powerful art form and can and should be used to document the world around us whether it be a boy performing tricks to impress his friends, a man jumping over a river or the heart breaking and horrifying documentation of disasters.
Bibliography
PRIMARY SOURCES
The Falling Man by Richard Drew
Behind The Gare Saint-Lazare by Henri Cartier-Bresson
SECONDARY SOURCES
1: 100 photographs by the Editors of Time Magazine
2: Capturing the moment; the essence of photography by Michael Freeman
3: Street photography Now by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren
4: COLOUR | MATT STUART | PHOTOGRAPHER | SHOOTS PEOPLE — MATT STUART | PHOTOGRAPHER | SHOOTS PEOPLE
5: B:Matt Stuart: What Was He Thinking? (blakeandrews.blogspot.com)
6: Paris between the Wars (1919–1939) - Wikipedia
7: Behind The Gare Saint-Lazare Example | Graduateway
8: Number of terrorist attacks globally dropped in 2016: U.S. government | Reuters
9: Kaitlyn: Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1932): Analytical Paper (thecoastisneverclear.blogspot.com)
10: In Search of Brilliant Moments: Street Photography’s Heightened Existence - Interview with Matt Stuart | By Alexander Strecker | LensCulture
11: Falling Man | 100 Photographs | The Most Influential Images of All Time
13: everybody’s street – Cheryl Dunn
13: the falling man, short documentary by 100 photos
SOURCES OF QUOTATION:
*1: Behind The Gare Saint-Lazare Example | Graduateway
*2: In Search of Brilliant Moments: Street Photography’s Heightened Existence - Interview with Matt Stuart | By Alexander Strecker | LensCulture
*3: the falling man, short documentary by 100 photos
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Laura Watt
WORD COUNT:
1952 words