Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/05/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]If I recall, HCB had a characteristically comprehensive and elegant definition of, for him, the decisive moment. I wish I could come up with it right now, to quote it here, but sorry to say, I just don't have it at hand. Maybe someone else knows what I'm referring to? Art -----Original Message----- From: B. D. Colen [mailto:bdcolen@earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 13:23 To: 'Leica Users Group' Subject: RE: [Leica] The Critic Here we go again - They weren't all "staged," but neither were virtually any of them "decisive moments" if what you mean by decisive moment is that in an instant he saw a photo before his eye, whipped his camera up, and captured it in a single shot. I take the decisive moment to be that instant when you see the photographic possibilities in a scene or even before you, not the instant you push the shutter release, as you may push it dozens, if not hundreds of times around a single scene or event - which the contacts show HCB did. He was a prodigious shooter, and he really "worked" scenes, bouncing around like a kangaroo on speed. As someone once observed - was it HCB himself - the decisive moment was the instant when he saw the image on a contact sheet. B. D. -----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of robertmeier@usjet.net Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 1:00 PM To: Leica Users Group Subject: Re: [Leica] The Critic > So Bob said: > >>> Yes, in the right circumstances. At just the right moment. With > >>> many > > reflections and repetitions of the motion.<<<<<<< > > So Bob what your saying is.... > > Where HCB had the guy jump more than once, that's still a decisive > moment even though it was staged several times? > Ted, no, I didn't say that, nor mean that. The repetitions are in the poster behind him which shows a circus performer in the same position, roughly, that the jumper is in, and the various semi-circles in the water (and elsewhere I remember, but I don't have the picture infront of me) that repeat the lines of his arms, etc. > I see that as a repetitive moment, not a decisive moment. Any idiot > photographer worth his salt can have someone do an action many times > and eventually capture something decisive looking. Then of course over > a 60 year > or more span create the myth of it being caught as a one shot decisive > moment. > Are you charging that HCB staged this shot? What is the basis for your accusation? > I stick by my earlier comment, this picture of the critic with arms raised, > as we see it presented here, is as decisive a moment as the > re-creations by > HCB. Why shouldn't it be. Hell if it were presented as an HCB everyone would > pee their pants with "Oh man he's the greatest!" > A decisive moment, certainly. But "the re-creations by HCB"? You think ALL of his pictures were staged? Bob _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information