Throughout my time as a photographer, I have often reflected back on Cartier-Bresson's work because of his fantastic composition through all of his images.
" The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera
and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box."
Many of his images are known as masterpieces, but Bresson himself wants to be seen as almost invisible. He always looked for the decisive moment in everyday life, so that he could capture people in their normal day-to-day activities. He believed that these images revealed the nature of real life. He was definitely an observer, and he always knew what he wanted and what interested him. He often described himself as a fisherman - to be very cautious when catching the fish, and then to strike at exactly the right moment.
The thing that strikes me about his work is his incredible use of composition. The way the objects in the photo are laid out draws the eye in and the viewer wants to look deeper into the image. All of his images, in one way or another, use fantastic composition; which is a key part of photography. I also think that the way he captures his images at a specific time is really clever and gives his images a certain edge that other photographers don't have.
"My passion has never been for photography 'in itself', but for the possibility-through forgetting yourself-of recording in a fraction of a second the emotion of the subject, and the beauty of the form; that is, a geometry awakened by what's offered. The photographic shot is one of my sketchpads"
This is one of the most inspiring quotes I have ever read. Also, this is exactly how I feel about photography...my love for the art revolves around the chance to make something absolutely beautiful and meaningful through the click of one small button. A particular snippet of Cartier-Bresson's book was particularly inspiring to me when I read it:
"The camera became the extension of my eye, and I have never been separated from it since I found it. I prowled the streets all day, feeling very strung up and ready to pounce, determined to 'trap' life - to preserve life in the act of living. Above all, I craved to seize, in the confines of one single photograph, the whole essence of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes."
Just as Cartier-Bresson did, I love to work with the decisive moment. I think that capturing people at a specific time...in a specific place...is magical, and you I believe you can only bring out people's true character through the decisive moment - never in a staged shot.
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