Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Decisive Moment




wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I had a very busy day, but I am feeling light like balloons. I got so much done on the comic tonight--I began inking and it's looking great if I do say so myself. Someday I'll post a bit for friends and family to see.

For the time being, I thought I'd post a print that makes me very happy. It's the second lithograph I ever did, and I love it so much, I've never gotten sick of it. I drew it from a photograph I took in Capri. (Of course, this being only my second litho, I was not yet accustomed to the concept of my drawings printing backwards)

The prolific Henri Cartier-Bresson, every photographer's favorite photographer, described what made his photos as immediate, masterful and important as they are: the concept of the decisive moment. There are more eloquent ways of describing this, but the Decisive Moment fundamentally is the moment when your picture becomes THE picture you want to take.

Some long dead cardinal said: "Il n'y a rien dans ce monde qui n'ait un moment decisif" or "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment".

Cartier-Bresson said: "To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms that give that event its proper expression."

To me, the moment a salty Italian breeze gave a boost to those balloons was my own (very) humble decisive moment, and I'm glad I had the where with all to snap the shutter.

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