Decisive Moments: Diary of a Photographer Page 1

It was a Sunday afternoon, late August, in Dallas, and that means heat. The kind of heat that radiates from the core of your body for hours after coming indoors. I was working part time in the glazing industry while attending courses at Richland College and had an assignment due the following Thursday. I knew I needed to get out and make some images. The terminology is important, we don't take photographs, we make them. Constructive versus destructive, make versus take. While I am generally against the pruning of language in a misguided effort to avoid offending sensibility, in photography terminology is critical. Photo of course is Greek for light, and graph, draw. We draw, the film (or sensor) is our paper and the light, our pencil. We are makers of images, students of the craft and art of photography. Not vacationers taking snapshots!
The Pentax K1000 used that fateful summer day.

In spite of the heat, I grabbed my trusty Pentax K1000, one of the greatest 35mm cameras ever made, particularly because of the amazingly sharp Asahi lenses, and decided to head to the Dallas Zoo. The assignment was The Decisive Moment, and I had spent a good deal of the last two weeks looking at the work of photographers such as Lee Friedlander, Gary Winogrand and Henri Cartier-Bresson, the master of the Decisive Moment. In fact, I had picked up his book by the same title and found it very insightful in terms of how to approach the seemingly random and chaotic nature of street photography. Some of my fellow classmates were having difficulty simply being in public and actively making images. There is something intimidating about it at first. You feel conspicuous. I learned very quickly that once you start moving around and working an area with your camera people quickly tend to go back to their routines, allowing you to slip into the background. This is the moment when things can really begin to develop! Being ignored never felt so good.

Looking at and emulating the work of photographers you admire is one of the best and fastest ways to master your craft. Want to be a sports photographer? Look at the best image makers in the field, read any stories you can find about their process, both technical and mental, and soak in the knowledge. The same is true for any type of photography. Seek work as an assistant to a wedding or commercial photographer. You will make money faster than most while mastering your craft, and avoiding accumulating student loan debt! A true win/win scenario.

Want to be a good street photographer? Look at lots of work both historical and contemporary. Read the books of photographers you want to emulate and copy their techniques. Here below is one of my favorite quotes and an image from Henri Cartier-Bresson, heralded as the master of the Decisive Moment and Father of Street Photography...... although I would argue Atget gives him more than a run for his money. An argument for another post perhaps. At any rate, reading his book and looking at examples of work before and during the completion of this assignment proved invaluable. Please read and look at lots of work, obsessively! Obsession is a good trait, as an artist.

From: The Decisive Moment - Henri Cartier-Bresson
"In photography there is a new kind of plasticity, the product of instantaneous lines made by movements of the subject. We work in unison with movement as though it were a presentiment on the way in which life itself unfolds. But inside movement there is one moment at which the elements in motion are in balance. Photography must seize upon this moment and hold immobile the equilibrium of it."

Inspired by these writings, and equipped with several rolls of TMAX 400, I braved the Texas heat and headed for the Dallas Zoo. In the days of 36 exposure rolls of film, and especially as a beginner and a student, getting three to four good strong images per roll was deemed a success. The rest were either flawed in some technical way, didn't quite click in terms of composition and so on. I needed ten images, so I hoped to get a few rolls exposed and squeak out the assignment in one session.

Upon arrival, the crowds were large, the mosquitoes were thick and the temperature high. Perfect conditions for drama and high emotion! I was getting excited for the possibilities of the day, and feasted on by my winged tormentors. I pushed on.

The day unwound slowly. I made a few good images, one of a toddler in a stroller staring in amazement at an elderly woman who was in a wheelchair and clearly not feeling well. It took a few exposures to capture the moment when she realized the young boy was gawking at her. I can only imagine what was going through each of their minds. Unfortunately I have no scan of this image but it sticks out in my memory.

Moving down the path towards the flamingo pool I saw a very interesting trio near the guard rail of said pool. A mother with a young boy around age three, maybe four.....and a baby in a stroller. Mom turns her back to the boy and begins digging in the diaper bag. I hear a voice in my head. It was Bresson's words, that I had read in his book The Decisive Moment. This time however, a different passage came to mind.

"Sometimes it happens that you stall, delay, wait for something to happen. Sometimes you have the feeling that here are all the makings of a picture – except for just one thing that seems to be missing. But what one thing?", and an added statement. "Wait and be ready when the moment comes, plasticity!" I thought of Luke Skywalker and Kenobi. RIP Star Wars. But I digress.

I watched, moving closer, twenty feet away. I keep moving. The boy begins climbing up the stroller, trying to pull himself over the handrail, mom is still digging. I am now on one knee, right next to the stroller, camera in hand, pretending like I am photographing the flamingos. I am actually focusing my camera on the boy and positioning him in frame. Wait.........and then the moment comes!

"Hey lady, your kid is climbing over the rail," I warn her. Mom whips around quickly and her hand enters the frame, grabbing the boys shirt, I make the exposure.....I believe it was an f/11 at 1/250th of a second, I have the notes somewhere. It was 1998 after all. As a side note, I was just as prepared to save the young child from toppling over into the pool, had it come to that. It would have been a pity though.

The Image:

Dallas Zoo, 1998

My goal and passion is to provide insight to the photographic process and provide education to those interested in photography. I earned my MFA from the University of Houston in 2015 and this is my classroom. I hope this was an insightful and enjoyable read.

Thank you again and feel free to critique, correct, praise or otherwise comment as you deem appropriate.