Assignment 3: The Decisive Moment

Upon reading the brief for this assignment I decided that street photography would be my chosen form.

I’m fond of the work of Eugene Atget (1857 – 1927), and while his street photography doesn’t strike me as falling into the generally recognised form of ‘Decisive Moment’, there are those moments, when the architecture and positioning of buildings fall together perfectly in a scene, that can be considered a decisive moment for the photographer. This is a type of photography I’m very familiar with, and often practice as a hobby.

However, I decided to step out of my comfort zone, and into a type of street photography I have never previously explored, that being the form pioneered by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

My method was somewhat sneaky, but I feel this allowed me to achieve images that I wouldn’t have been able to capture by other means.

I used my Canon EOS 1300D with a 50mm prime lens (80mm equivalent on a full frame camera). It was set to shutter priority mode (most of the time) with a shutter speed of 1/50^th sec, in continuous shooting mode.  This camera has the useful inclusion of WiFi and NFC connectivity, which allowed me to connect it to my phone running the Canon Camera Connect app.

With this setup, I walked around Sheffield city centre, with the camera hanging casually around my neck by its strap. Whenever I happened upon an interesting scene, or location with the potential for ‘people watching’, I would slow down, or stop walking, and appear to be engrossed with text messages on my phone. What I was actually doing was observing the people through my camera lens, via the screen on my phone… which I was also using to trigger the shutter.

Using this method I was able to avoid what Yves Bonnefoy described in the Cartier-Bresson documentary, L’amour tout court: ‘Alberto knew he was watched. He knew his gesture would amuse his friends and even reveal what he knew he was to them.’ (L’amour tout court, 2001)

Much street photography seems to either feature people photographed from behind, to keep them unaware of the camera, or responding to the camera, either posing, or disturbed/annoyed. Using this phone app with my camera allowed me to capture people’s facial expressions up close, (mostly) without them being aware that they’re being photographed. This produced very natural looking results.

 

“Wait! Is he…?”

 F4, 1/125^th sec, ISO 100, 50mm

View 1500 x 1000 at https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/1-waitishe1500.jpg

The young woman suddenly looks up from her phone as the man, who’s just walked past her, clearly doesn’t look both ways. He looks like he may be about to step out into heavy traffic.

The ‘moment’ is seeing a person suddenly recognise the danger another person is placing themselves in.

This ranks among my favourites, of all the photos I’ve ever taken. Partly because I know what happened next and partly because I know what the woman looks like.

 

“Confounded thing!”

F7.1, 1/50^th sec, ISO 100, 50mm

View 1500 x 1000 at https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/2-confoundedthing1500.jpg

Following from the young woman who’s comfortable with modern phone technology (in the previous image) is an older woman who, though her phone is very dated, appears to find ‘modern’ technology a bit of a trial.  The ‘moment’ is that flash of irritation, before she manages to make her call.

I’m unsure what the younger woman is looking at. She has an expression of concern on her face, and though she isn’t looking at my camera (which was in my lap), she may have noticed the shutter repeatedly cycling (it’s visible if you’re looking right at it), and could be looking at me.

 

“Eh?”

F3.5, 1/100^th sec, ISO 100, 50mm

View 1500 x 1000 at https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/3-eh1500.jpg

Still following a ‘generations of phone users’ theme, a youth, apparently staring in bewilderment at a telephone box. It’s as if he’s thinking “Phones go in your pocket. What’s that big red box all about?”

This is probably not what he was thinking at all, but his demeanour and direction of gaze created what was, to me, quite a comical looking moment.

 

“It’s how far?!!”

F4, 1/125^th sec, ISO 100, 50mm

View 1500 x 1000 at https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/4-itshowfar1500.jpg

The combination of struggling with awkward boxes, and the facial expressions as they realise they’ve got to take the boxes further than they’d expected… it makes a great visual moment. Their personalities are written all over their faces.

 

The Glance

F8, 1/50^th sec, ISO 100, 50mm

 View 1500 x 1000 at https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/5-theglance1500.jpg

The young man glances at the women sitting on the bench. It’s hard to say if they’re looking back at him or not, or what is on his mind. Is it “She’s pretty” or “What are they looking at?”? Whatever the case, the brief eye contact is clear, and stands out from what is a busy street scene.

 

The Glance II

F4, 1/50^th sec, ISO 100, 50mm

 View 1500 x 1000 at https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/6-theglance21500.jpg

The woman facing the camera glances at the two women walking towards her.  There are many possibilities as to what was on her mind, and whether they were positive or negative, I can’t tell. She was looking directly at them for a couple of paces, so for that moment, there was a distinct thought process.

There’s a secondary glance in this photo, as the man walking behind the woman seems to be staring directly at the camera. I read his expression as guarded antagonism, but I may be wrong. I did, though, experience some negative behaviour regarding my camera, even when I wasn’t actually using it.

Contact Sheets:

The contact sheets feature the shortlisted images from the three days of shooting. It was not practical to include every image taken, as there are 874 of them.

Contact Sheet 1 https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/decisivemomentcontactsheet-001-1500.jpg

Contact Sheet 2 https://photosthingsandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/decisivemomentcontactsheet-002-1500.jpg

(Word Count: 970)

Reference:

Atget Photography AT: http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Eugene-Atget.html (Accessed on 27/2/2017)

L’amour tout court (2001) [filmed (TV?) documentary on YouTube] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfwNrPX2pvw#t=7m57s (Accessed: 27/2/2017)

Assignment 3 – Refining My Selection

While looking through various files on one of the OCA Photography Level 1 facebook group  , I found a list of image types that are generally considered to be clichés. In that list were images featuring homeless people, and Big Issue sellers.

As it happens, I had shortlisted several images that fell into this category, and so immediately removed them from said shortlist… along with one other that I’ve been umming and ahhing about for a while.

My final shortlist for this assignment is now down to 6 images, all of which I think are quite strong, and I’m very fond of.

Here though, is my final set out out-takes.

 

“I can haz food now?”

View 1500 x 1000

There are several aspects to this image, that I find noteworthy.

There’s the obvious social commentary… people in our society are struggling and homelessness is a reality for many. Also, the unwillingness of many to engage with, or even acknowledge this problem. See the people walking straight past, seemingly heading for the jewelers, to spend large sums of money on pretty shiny things.

There’s the decisive moment itself, which for me, isn’t the people walking past…. it’s the dog, hoping for/expecting food, as the man reaches into his coat.

There’s also the sign, in the window behind the man. “Me and you. Just us two.” It could seemingly be referring to the man and his love for his pet. This spell is somewhat broken, though, when you notice the other dog.

I’ve been quite torn over whether to include this image or not. I feel it has something to say, and with the (visual and actual) relationship between the man and his dog, there’s something quite emotional about it. That being said, I find the composition somehow obvious and lacking in subtlety. It might make you think, or feel something, but it does so by punching you in the face. Also, on a purely technical level, when looking at the full size image, the focus is not great.

 

“Anybody? No?”

View 1500 x 1000

I don’t think it’s actually copies of The Big Issue she’s holding out, but it amounts to the same thing. It’s probably safe to assume this would fall into the realms of photographic cliché.

It’s a pity. While this is also compositionally limited and unsubtle, I find it a more pleasing image than the previous one. I think it’s the expression of warmth on the woman’s face, despite being ignored by everyone, and the contrast between the movement and stillness of the ignorers and the ignored..

 

“Big Issue!”

View 1500 x 1071

Now this chap actually is selling the Big Issue. He’s not shouting it out though…. that’s a yawn. Probably indicative of how hard sleep is to come by for those with no roof over their head. I pulled this one quite early on, not due to clichéd subject matter, but because I find the composition itself quite weak. Like the first image, I find it somehow spatially confined and visually uncomfortable (not in a good or intended way).

 

“I’m sure it’s round here somewhere.”

View 1500 x 1000

The expression on the chap’s face as he rounds the corner… with him being positioned exactly between the edge of the shop door frame and the signpost… it just stands out, to me. It’s like the moment he realises he’s not where he thought he was. What’s he searching for? Salvation? Look up and left, fella.

Exhibition visit – Tim Etchells & Vlatka Horvat: What Can Be Seen – Millennium Gallery, Sheffield

This was a chance visit, as I just happened to be walking past the gallery while shooting street photography.

On walking into the exhibition area, I noted a number of large frames, sans paintings, all wrapped in bubble wrap, with large labels on them, or magic marker written directly onto the bubble wrap.  I concluded that they were still setting things up, and continued to wander around, looking at things and trying to get a feel for what the exhibition was about.

The obvious thing to do at this point would be to read the information posted on the walls, but…. duh.

There were display cases filled with collections of objects. One that I liked was full of old ornate pocket watches. I noticed there were labels with writing that didn’t seem to mean anything to the casual observer. Stock numbers or something. Then there was the occasional empty space, with a note saying something like “item not found”. This struck me as odd.

I continued looking around, finding other collections of things, and other, larger items. All with cards or labels on them.

Then I found a series of photos.

They were of what I can only describe as museum storage facilities. Stacked boxes… and cards from file systems… or cards placed on items. One that I remember vividly read “Set of non-specific bones. Provenance unknown.”

At this point it struck me. The collections of things, while all very interesting and visually pleasing, were perhaps not the main subject matter. It was the nature of organising and recording. The missing items, and the cards detailing the items, or lack of items… I don’t know if they were what the exhibition was actually about, but they were certainly a very important aspect of it.

Then I grinned like a raving loon. The bubble wrapped frames. They weren’t preparations for an exhibit. They were the exhibit!

The gallery website http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/museums/millennium-gallery/exhibitions/current/tim-etchells-and-vlatka-horvat-what-can-be-seen presents the exhibition differently, but this post represents my own personal experience when visiting.

Assignment 3 – Shooting – Day 3

Still freezing cold, to the point that it snowed on several occasions. However, this time I was wrapped up in more layers of clothing, so I didn’t wind up feeling miserable. In fact… I actually enjoyed myself.

Highlight of the day was only partly photographic in nature. I was approached by a charity worker (for the second time) and on telling her again that I could not pledge a monthly donation due to being a poverty stricken (mature) student… she looked at my camera and said she was into photography too. At this point, I showed her the app I was using on my phone, and how it acted as a remote viewer and shutter release for my camera.  Her jaw dropper, and she commented on how brilliant that would be for street photography. I grinned, and explained that that’s exactly what I was doing. She then said she was a Cartier-Bresson fan, which, I replied, made her the coolest person on the street. She chuckled and I went on my way.

Little things like that brighten up a freezing day.

But as for the actual photography… I shot more images on this one visit that the other two combined, and felt hopeful that I had quite a lot of good material.

Yeah, right.

On transferring from camera to PC, I found a good half were either out of focus or suffered motion blur. Lack of focus is down to the app. It’s slow to focus, or sometimes simply doesn’t bother. Motion blur is my fault. In an effort to not be conspicuous in my activities, I sometimes shoot while still moving. I slow down, but don’t stop. Sometimes stopping is just not practical on a busy city street.

So initially it looked like I had no useable images at all, and only later did I realise that my camera had shut down while mid-transfer, and there were another 90 shots on the memory card. Two of them, thankfully, are very much to my liking.

As per usual, I’m just going to share my rejects here. I like them enough to want to share them, but am saving the best for submission.

It occurs to me that this is counter to what we are supposed to do with these blogs. I should be showing my best images, and seeking feedback on my choices, and there is much to be said for doing that.  Maybe it’s just arrogance on my part, but for this assignment at least, I feel I’m able to recognise my own best shots, and want to keep them as a surprise, showing them all at once on submission.

Whatever. I guess I’ve never been good in regard to feedback… be that seeking it, or valuing it. I do my own thing, and do well or otherwise based on my own choices and abilities. It may not be the ‘correct’ way, but if I should do badly, I’d feel a whole lot better failing based on my own mistakes than if I failed after paying attention to feedback.

There will be those who’d say “so listen to feedback, and if you disagree with it, don’t follow it.”.. and that’s a fair comment. I do, however, find that such things knock my confidence into the floor, and I start second guessing myself. I don’t need that.

Anyway…. here’s some street photography from my 3rd day of shooting in Sheffield.

 

Image #1

View 1500 x 1000

Ever since seeing Rhein II by Andreas Gursky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein_II  I find myself drawn to scenes with parallel horizontal lines. So these may not be exactly parallel, and there are vertical features… including people… but there’s something I find very appealing about it. If the two pedestrians had actually collided, I might have included this…. but they didn’t.

 

 

Image #2

View 1500 x 1000

A group of ladies waiting for a tram. Not really a decisive moment, but a nice scene, nonetheless.

 

 

Image #3

View 1500 x 1000

The tram arrives.

 

 

Image #4

View 1500 x 1000

An elderly couple heading home from a fleamarket. The man almost trips, and the woman steadies him.  The composition is weak, but I like what the image represents. This whole street photography series has been an exercise in people watching, and I’ve seen so many different aspects of the human condition. Perseverance in maintaining independence into old age is something I care about. I don’t know that I used to think about mortality all that much, but time marches on and you lose people. It changes your perspective.

 

 

Image #5

View 1500 x 1000

I like the sense of life in this image. One chap’s struggling to do up his coat, while another stops mid stride, distracted by something/someone behind him. The group of people in the centre are moving with a purpose… and at first, I didn’t realise what it was. Sing it now…. “We’re all going down the pub!” lalala….

 

 

Image #6

View 1500 x 1000

I really wish this was a stronger composition, because the moment itself is great. Quite how the chap on the mobility scooter got it up on 3 wheels like that I don’t know.

 

 

Image #7

View 1500 x 1000

Humanity. My roots are very much working class, and this scene feels very familiar and comfortable to me. Something about it just makes me smile.

 

 

Image #8

View 1500 x 1000

This one’s all about light, space and movement. Shooting at 1/50th of a second with a 50mm lense often seem to achieve almost magical qualities in terms of motion blur at walking speeds, while also giving a beautiful sense of depth and space. The two pedestrians are almost leaping out of the screen.

 

 

Image #9

View 1500 x 1000

Busy buses and an angry sky. I stood here for some time, and only moved when a taxi pulled in and almost ran me over.

 

 

Image #10

View 1500 x 1000

I wouldn’t fancy the Skoda’s chances against the bus, but there he is, on collision course.

 

Conclusion:

Quantity does not equate to  quality, and for better results… stop walking.

Assignment 3 – Shooting – Day 2

Day two in Sheffield was not as successful as day one. It was cold… again… but this time I was feeling somewhat ill too. I only spent around 2 1/2 hours walking around with my camera, using the phone app, as mentioned in my previous post, to take shots without people being aware of what I was doing. (A quick note: Day One, the camera was in Shutter Priority, 1/50 sec. Today it was in Program mode, and I let it do it’s own thing.)

What I found was that you really have to be in the right frame of mind to get the best images, and I didn’t ‘have my photographer’s head on’.

So, after 200 shots taken, I came away with 7 images that I liked, and only two that I’ll likely include in my selection.

I’ll share four of the five rejects here, but I’m holding one back, as it feels a little too intrusive to me. The whole process of street photography feels a little voyeuristic to me… and while I love the results, I do find myself a little uncomfortable posting images of people, taken without permission or knowledge. It’s legal… but… in some cases, I think better not to.

Image #1

View 1500 x 1000

This one’s just… nice. It made me smile. There was another moment later on, after I’d put my camera away (the battery was flat and I was too cold to bother putting another in)… I followed a couple in their 70s up the hill. They were holding hands. At the top of the hill, they stopped and kissed, before going separate ways. It was the sweetest thing, and I really wished I’d bothered to put a fresh battery in my camera.

This one still doesn’t make the selection though, for while I like it, I don’t feel the overall composition is that strong, or the moment that decisive. It’s ‘nice’, but nice won’t cut it here.

 

Image #2

View 1500 x 1000

Certainly a decisive moment, and quite a dramatic looking one. Not included in my selection, as I’m concentrating on people, so it doesn’t really fit.

 

Image #3

View 1500 x 1000

Something about the (broken) flow of the lines, the contrasting shades, and the juxtaposition of the hole and the bag. And the rust. I like rust.

Not a decisive moment. Just a pleasing image.

 

Image #4

View 1500 x 1000

Not a decisive moment. Not even an indecisive moment. It’s just a view that I find really pleasing. There’s a shot I’ve been wanting to take, for years. It’s about 20 feet from where I stood to take this photo. I’ve seen the perfect angle for the shot, many times. The problem is, you’d have to stand in the centre lane of a very busy roundabout to get it. That’s not going to happen. Shame, coz it’d be a brilliant shot.

 

Next trip will be Friday. It’s supposed to snow. I hope so. While I hate the actual experience of shooting in the cold, I love the results… and snow could really add something extra.

 

Assignment 3 – Shooting – Day 1

The first thing I must say about day one of shooting street photography in Sheffield City Centre is…. it was cold. It was really, really, cold. To the point that using the controls of my camera became almost impossible.

Anyway, kitted out with my 24mm pancake and a 1/25th sec shutter speed in shutter priority mode, I set off. I started shooting by holding my camera in one hand (with the strap wound around my wrist in case I dropped it), and casually pointed it at things/people of interest… while walking. This had worked in the past (albeit I’d only done it once before), so I had high hopes.

It would seem that that one time in the past was a lucky fluke, because after 20 minutes or so of this, I checked my shots, and every last one of them was a useless blurred mess. I felt crestfallen.

Time for Plan B. I got out my phone… and discovered the Canon Camera Connect app had updated… into a form I was completely unfamiliar with. It took me 15 minutes to make the thing connect to my camera, and all the time I was getting colder and colder.

So I set off walking, with my camera just above waist height, hanging from its strap around my neck. I kept my eyes mostly up, and when I saw something of interest, I slowed down, and pressed the shutter release control on my phone.

Half an hour of this, and I checked my shots.

All rubbish.

I was now feeling thoroughly miserable, and really didn’t know what to do.

A trip to the Winter Gardens to warm up helped.

I felt sure my method had potential, but I needed to do something different to actually get the shots. First though,  I switched to my 50mm lens, as with this, I wouldn’t need to get so close to people. I reset the shutter speed to 1/50th sec.

On going back out, I hit on a method that I hoped would work. I kept the camera hanging on it’s strap, but now, just to make it look even less likely that I was taking pictures with it, I hung it off centre, so it was pointing about 45 degrees to my right. Then, rather than looking for people doing interesting things, I largely looked for locations that were interesting, and had a high throughput of people… and I loitered.

I’d lean on a wall, or in a doorway, or generally out of the main flow of people, and look down at my phone. So as far as people were concerned, I was texting, or whatever. What I was actually doing was watching them on my app…. or lining up a shot and waiting for someone to walk into it.

Now, if I’m honest, after a couple of hours doing this, I was so cold, and really quite miserable, that I was fairly convinced I had nothing worth looking at. I hadn’t checked. My hands were too cold to press the buttons without a lot of fumbling. So I went home.

I didn’t review my photos till several hours after I’d got home, and was somewhat gobsmacked. I’d taken over 250 shots, and to be fair, a huge number of them were unusable, as focusing with the app is very hit and miss. To make it focus quickly, which you need for street photography, I relied on a centre weighted mode, and if I had any way of controlling it within the app, I couldn’t find it.

But the good images….

Okay… these are some of my rejects. They’re still (to my eyes) pleasing examples of street photography… they just don’t quite do it as examples of ‘decisive moment’ images.

 

Image #1

View 1500 x 1000

This was only the 2nd shot I took where I thought “okay… that’s actually a moment”, where I’d isolated an individual from the flow of bodies.  It’s a reject because while it’s certainly a moment, it’s not really a decisive one.

 

Image #2

View 1500 x 1000

You can’t really tell what’s happening here. There are two figures in close proximity to each other, and the movement in the shot makes it feel like they might be fighting (they aren’t). Nothing is in focus, and there is no real focus to the image…. but I still like it. It has energy.

 

Image #3

View 1500 x 1000

I like the juxtaposition of the three figures. “Which one should I buy?”  … “Hey… is that Bob over there?” … “Bloody litter. Bloody cold. Wish I was at home.”

 

Image #4

View 1500 x 1000

I watched this guy for some time. Always chose to approach young women with a slick flattering approach before going into his charity spiel.  I like how the two older women have obviously heard whatever he said to the young woman. Rejected because the overall composition is quite weak and unstructured.

Image #5

View 1500 x 1000

It’s hard to explain what I like about this. I think it’s the “Ahhhh…. that’s better” as the guy leans back and smokes after a lot of walking.  Equally hard to explain why it’s a reject. It has something… but maybe not the something that I want.

 

Image #6

View 1500 x 1000

I really like this shot. It’s like a stolen glance at a pretty girl while she’s eating.  I like how there are little glimpses of a lot of things, in between the bustling bodies. It’s a fluke shot from a stream of continuous shots as I followed the tram in with the camera. It’s a reject, because while to my eye, the ‘moment’ is glaringly obvious, I feel that to other viewers it might not be… especially as she’s out of focus.

I dunno. I might change my mind and include this one. Depends what other shots I get on subsequent trips. Feedback on this would be most welcome.

 

Image #7

View 1500 x 1000

There’s nothing really decisive about this. It’s just a moment. But it’s a moment I like. Something about the serenity on the face of the woman in the middle, amongst all the hustle and bustle of an inner city street. It’s a scene filled with sensory overload, yet there she is, apparently oblivious… mind elsewhere and unaffected.

 

Image #8

View 1500 x 1000

This one seems somehow comical to me. Pillows and quilts are bulky and awkward things to carry around at the best of times, and here are these two people having a discussion on the street while carrying them…   and a sign, seemingly pointing right at them, like “These are pedestrians!”

 

Image #9

View 1013 x 724

Scooby and Shaggy seemingly dancing to the music. Rejected because the posters are in focus, where the musician isn’t. Needed to be the other way around.  He was actually really good. Only playing cover versions of other people’s songs (that I noticed), so I didn’t buy his CDs, but I gave him a pound, just because I appreciated his skill.

Image #10

View 1500 x 1000

Getting off the bus. It’s a decisive moment. I like the composition. Rejected for the simple reason that it’s just too easy. You see people getting off buses every day, and it’s easy to stand near a bus stop and take a shot as someone gets off. Even that would be fine… if it actually said anything worth saying, beyond ‘people get off of buses’.

 

Image #11

View 1500 x 1000

This is another one I really like, but have rejected, because I don’t think others would see what I see. For me, it’s the woman who’s stopped to blow on her cold hands (or might be lighting a cigarette), amidst a scene of … not chaos… there’s no rioting going on… but the image is chaotic in nature.

 

Image #12

View 1500 x 1000

Are these buses racing, or is one about to rear-end the other? It looks like how I’d play Grand Theft Auto if I’d stolen a bus.

Image #13

View 1500 x 1000

Nice, but too obvious. Probably a cliche.

 

Image #14

View 1500 x 1000

I like how the homeless chap is out of focus, like people’s attention in the modern world is on themselves, or anything but the poor guy starving in the cold. Rejected for several reasons. The ‘photo a hobo’ shot has long been a cliche, even if social commentary is an admirable thing. I’ve seen this same guy on this same spot in a submission by another OCA student… so….  y’know. Ultimately though, the composition is weak.  A better angle, in better light might have made all the difference, but even though I could’ve repositioned myself, I think it would’ve been obvious and would’ve drawn his attention.  I do feel sorry for him though. I’ll shut up, before I start getting political.

 

Image #15

View 1500 x 1000

I felt sorry for this bird too. It had an injured leg/foot, and had sought shelter indoors. There’s a story behind this shot. I was sitting next to a chap of (I assume) Pakistani descent, in full muslim attire… the long flowing gown thing, the little hat and the big beard. We chatted and he told me that for all of the 50 years he’d lived in Sheffield, he’d never travelled on a train before… so he was a little out of his element in this place.  He seemed to tense up somewhat when I took my camera out. The state of the world today, with all the horrible right wing anti-muslim sentiment may have been a factor. Who knows? Anyway… he seemed to relax after a moment and looked at me quizzically. I pointed under the chairs in front of us. He hadn’t seen the pigeon.

 

So there’s this reaction to ‘decisive moment’ type street photography, which involves taking photos of things, where everything just falls together… landscapes, buildings, weather…. whatever… but the moment is with the photographer, not people on the street.

I get the idea. I even like it as art. It’s the kind of thing I’ve taken many times before. I just don’t think of it as a ‘decisive moment’. For that reason, even though I took these, and really like them, I won’t be including them in my submission.

Image #16

View 1500 x 1000

 

Image #17

View 1500 x 1000

 

Image #18

View 1500 x 1000

 

Image #19

View 1500 x 1000

 

Image #20

View 1500 x 1000

Many of these… I see the scenes, and find it hard to believe the architects didn’t have this exact scene in mind when they designed their buildings. They seem to have been put together specifically to be viewed from this exact position.

I think that may be part of why I don’t include such images in my submission though. Where there are people in the photo… no-one else is ever going to take that same shot. With buildings, anyone can see this scene, think “wow” and take a photo. Many probably already have. So I like them. But are they unique? I can’t be sure.

Assignment 3 – Planning

The title is perhaps misleading. Given the assignment, how can one plan for shooting a ‘decisive moment’?  It’s very nature is random and based on chance, so the idea of having a comprehensive plan is a nonsense.

I do, however, know what I intend to do… and it’s what I do best. It’s what I’m most comfortable doing… whilst also requiring me to do something I always pointedly avoid doing whenever possible.

I shall wing it…. and I shall shoot people. Er… that sounds wrong. I shall photograph people.

Here’s the thing, I’ve always been very comfortable with street photography, but what I was always shooting was the streets themselves… or rather, the buildings. I’ve never had a plan. I love to just go to new places… or places I’m familiar with…. it doesn’t matter… look around, soak in the feel of the place, point my camera at stuff and take pictures.

So for this assignment, I shall go to Sheffield city centre, probably every weekday afternoon for the next 2 or 3 weeks, and point my camera at people. (This could also be amusing, as I’m known by a few people online, and you never know who you might bump into in a place like that.)

I’m unsure what lens would be best suited for this, so I expect to try all of my autofocus capable ones, and then stick with whichever one serves me best.

I’m also aware that people sometimes don’t like having a camera pointed at them, so I have a couple of ideas to deal with that. Keeping the camera partly concealed within my coat is one thought, but I think the most effective thing will be to use the Canon Camera Connect app on my phone.

With this, I can keep my camera hanging round my neck by it’s strap, while I steady it (aim it covertly) with one hand. In my other hand will be my phone, and to anyone looking, I will be texting, or tweeting, or whatever other things a person might be doing with a phone…. and obviously, not remotely controlling my camera to take photos of them.

It’s safe to say this will be typical Cartier-Bresson style ‘decisive moment’ street photography. I’m not going for any high concept or counter concept stuff here. Why? I think it’s because I’ve looked at such works, and they just don’t excite me, where a really good C-B style shot truly does.

Whatever. This is very much to be a ‘take it as it comes’ type operation. It has to be… and I’m looking forward to it.

The Decisive Moment – My Position

There is a debate on ‘The Decisive Moment’ regarding its position, or validity, in contemporary art photography. Does it capture the essence of life in a given instant, or is it merely a churned outpouring of mundane indecisiveness in an urban landscape?

To explain my position, I shall show you two photographs that I took, both with the ‘decisive moment’ in mind as I took them.

Image #1

View 1500 x 833

Here, I was struck by the almost comedic nature of the planks of wood, protruding from the sunroof of the car at the front of the queue. The positioning of the cars, and the street furniture created a balance in the scene that I found appealing. The grey nature of the sky, and the dismal mood it created… all of these things combined, to make me think “this… this will make a great photo!”

My camera was already out, so I aimed, and I shot.

The result?  It’s a pleasing image, and one that I’m including in a personal series that I will probably entitle ‘The horror of the mundane’, or some other pretentious nonsense.

What it isn’t… is a decisive moment. There’s nothing decisive about this image. It’s the exact opposite of decisive. Everything has ground to a halt. Nothing is happening, and nothing can happen until the lights change.

So while I certainly had a decisive moment in mind as I took the shot…. everything just gelled as a good image, from my perspective… from the perspective of a viewer, this is not a photograph of a decisive moment, and to classify it as such would be a mistake.

 

Image #2

View 1500 x 1000

This image, for me, is a much better example of a decisive moment. The shot, as I’ve described in previous posts (I’m very fond of this image so have referred to it more than once already) was entirely opportunistic. I saw the scene, I pointed my camera (without looking through the viewfinder) and I shot.

There is life, and gesturing, and thought, and action. Things are happening. Things are being said. Decisions are being made. This is a unique moment… you’ll never see this exact scene anywhere else, or even one similar to it.

You know what you’re looking at, and more importantly, what you’re supposed to be looking at. I showed my wife the previous image, last night, and the first thing she said was “So what am I supposed to be looking at?”  You’d never get that with this photo.

 

Conclusion

So, having shown two examples of my own work, where do I stand in the debate?

I think ‘The Decisive Moment’ can still be a valid form in contemporary photography… whether as a tool for storytelling or documentary, I wouldn’t like to say, and in truth… I don’t care. I just think it’s a tool capable of producing striking images, capable of producing an emotional response.  Isn’t that the goal, in the end? Make people feel something. Happiness, sadness, warmth, horror…. something.

The decisive moment can do that, and maybe in a way that no other type of photograph can.

However… great care must be taken in the selecting of such images. As I’ve shown, it’s very easy to take a photograph where, to the photographer, there is a real moment of “this!”… but to the viewer, there is nothing but a “so what am I looking at?” experience.

It’s very easy to get it wrong, and I do wonder if such a lack of self discipline on the part of photographers, when selecting their shots for inclusion, is the cause of the backlash against the decisive moment as a form.

Exercise 3.3

I have not done part one of this exercise as I don’t own or have access to a manual film camera.

For part two, I decided to walk to ‘Manton Pit Top’… the landscaped remains of what was the slag heap at Manton Colliery in Worksop. It’s the highest vantage point around here… and in truth, the only publicly accessible spot with any kind of view that I can think of in this area.

Having said that, while walking there, I happened upon this spot where the view is quite good given the surroundings. I took in the scene, and as luck would have it… the traffic was doing other than just moving in a slow procession of tedium. I could really have done with a tighter shot at this moment, but as a 24mm prime was on the camera, that’s what I had to go with.

Image #1

View 1500 x 1000

Cropping the image produced this… not sure if it’s more interesting or not really.

View 1500 x 1000

It’s by no means an interesting picture, but really, sticking to the conditions of the exercise, in this town… you’re not going to get an interesting picture. The next image will rather prove my point.

 

Image #2

View 1500 x 1000

So I climbed to the top of the ‘pit top’ and took in the view. With binoculars or a telephoto lens, some parts can be quite scenic. With this 24mm lens… not so much.

On looking directly ahead, I was aware of the parallel lines running through the scene in one direction, and  thought of Rhein II by Andreas Gursky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein_II (though this lacks the purity of that image, not to mention having entirely the opposite purpose).

There was not a lot of movement to take in, and none at all up close, as the nature of the setting dictated that anything near me was not going to move much.

On paying attention to the traffic on the road, I took the shot as a white van became parallel with the white dome at the sewage works in the background.

Conclusion

I understand that the purpose of this exercise was to practice awareness of one’s surroundings… of ‘looking’…. so that you can recognise a ‘moment’… and be prepared to photograph it. However, I found that the requirement of finding a high vantage point hindered me in achieving this goal. It was a distraction, and upon reaching such a vantage point, I found being there to be even more detrimental to the exercise.

Truth be told… when I… to coin a Worzel Gummidge phrase… ‘have my photographers head on’… I see and experience the world in a different way. I’m constantly ‘looking’. It’s a very pleasing state of awareness. This exercise broke me out of that entirely, and the only reason I wouldn’t say the trip was a complete waste of my time was because I used the walk to explore some locations I’d not been before, and took some photos that were unconnected to the exercise, but that I was reasonably pleased with.

Henri Cartier-Bresson – L’amour tout court

The first thing that struck me while watching ‘L’amour tout court’ (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL707C8F898605E0BF) was that when taking his photo ‘Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare’ (https://iconicphotos.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/cartier-bresson-henri-iza-gare-st-lazare-paris-1932.jpg) Cartier-Bresson was not looking through the viewfinder.

This reminds me of a photograph of a wedding party that I took while walking through Sheffield, which prompted me to write a piece in this learning log entitled ‘Opportunism’ https://photosthingsandstuff.wordpress.com/2016/11/21/opportunism/ .

As Cartier-Bresson said… ‘It’s always luck.’ (L’amour tout court, 2001a)

I’m struck by Cartier-Bresson’s eye for form. How he shoots images based on the relationship of objects… the balance. He sees them and he knows what he should shoot. It is something I can relate to.

I don’t for one moment compare myself to him in terms of skill or talent, merely that his methodology in certain circumstances feels familiar; like how he suggests that you must come upon these moments and recognise them for what they are. If you specifically look for them, you won’t find them.

‘If you want it, you get nothing. Just be receptive and it happens.’ (L’amour tout court, 2001b)

Yves Bonnefoy said of Cartier-Besson that he paid attention to his surroundings, while also remaining attentive to those he was with, and this allowed him to shoot spontaneously and achieve great results. ‘Henri never dropped out of the conversation.’ (L’amour tout court, 2001c).

This sounds like the work of a genius savant, except I found myself amused when Cartier-Bresson contradicted this view himself, saying that he needs concentration when taking photos, and just talks rubbish to those around him. ‘I talk nonsense. I don’t know what I’m saying. I watch.’ (L’amour tout court, 2001d)

He does though suggest that it takes a level of innate talent to recognise that precise moment, where everything falls together, when the framing of the scene and the positioning and action of the subject are perfect. ‘You must feel it intuitively. Sensitivity, intuition… A sense of geometry. Nothing else. You have it, or you don’t.’ (L’amour tout court, 2001e).

He echoed this view later, in part 4, when asked if such skills could be taught. ‘Can one learn to look? Can one learn to have sex?’ (L’amour tout court, 2001f). I think he is saying that you can learn technique, in terms of creating balanced images and composition, but that recognising the scene that deserves photographing, and being able to faithfully capture it and do it justice takes talent, and passion, which cannot be taught.

My first impression, when watching, was one of ‘this is going to be tedious’. The first clip seemed rather direction-less and meandering. By the end, however, I found I had thoroughly enjoyed watching, and agreed with a good deal of what was said. Cartier-Bresson put into words many things which I feel I have grasped intuitively but never consciously considered. Other things, I simply agree with. While technique can be taught, talent, and passion, cannot.

Whatever… I feel more prepared now for when I begin the ‘Decisive Moment’ assignment.

(Word Count: 497)

 

Reference

L’amour tout court (2001) [filmed (TV?) documentary on YouTube] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfwNrPX2pvw#t=55s

L’amour tout court (2001) [filmed (TV?) documentary on YouTube] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfwNrPX2pvw#t=1m10s

L’amour tout court (2001) [filmed (TV?) documentary on YouTube] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfwNrPX2pvw#t=4m02s

L’amour tout court (2001) [filmed (TV?) documentary on YouTube] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfwNrPX2pvw#t=8m47s

L’amour tout court (2001) [filmed (TV?) documentary on YouTube] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfwNrPX2pvw#t=5m13s

L’amour tout court (2001) [filmed (TV?) documentary on YouTube] At:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBDV26UvaNA#t=04