Being there, and not being there - 21/10/14

As a photographer, it is up to me when to actually take the picture, do I need to be there when there's the action? Or should I be there for the aftermath, the consequences of the action? I haven't made up my mind yet, but today's session gave an interesting look into two sides of the argument.

The Decisive Moment:

Henri Cartier Bresson's image shows the decisive moment, he said sometimes a moment like this could be spontaneous, other times you just have to be patient.  He was also very methodical, if this shot wasn't "perfect" in every way (aperture, composition, exposure etc) he'd scrap the photograph.

Robert Capa, American Troops landing on Omaha Beach, Normandy, France (June 6, 1944). Capa took stills from a movie camera, which I think effectively shows movement; his images are also great examples of the decisive moment, however he is not as methodical about his technique as Bresson.

The Not-so-Decisive Moment:

Husband and wife team Bernd and Hilla Becher began photographing old industrial sites in the 1950s, and described their subjects as ‘buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style’. The coal bunkers in these photographs were located in Germany, France and Britain, while the photographs of pitheads were all taken at British collieries between 1965 and 1973. Within a few years of completing this work, almost all of the structures had been demolished. The pair worked in a typology style which required careful construction of their images, nothing could be out of place. There is no decisive moment within their work.

"Pitheads" (1975)