P | P3 | AS3: The (in)decisive moment
- Amber Houbara
- Oct 31, 2024
- 6 min read
‘The decisive moment is not a dramatic climax but a visual one: the
result is not a story but a picture.’
(Swarkowski, 2007, p.5)
‘You know it’s funny. You come to someplace new, and everything looks just the same.’
(Eddie in Stranger Than Paradise, Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
Brief
Create a set of between six and ten finished images on the theme of the decisive moment. You may choose to create imagery that supports the tradition of the ‘decisive moment’ or you may choose to question or invert the concept by presenting a series of ‘indecisive’ moments. Your aim isn’t to tell a story, but in order to work naturally as a series there should be a linking theme, whether it’s a location, event or particular period of time.
Include a written introduction to your work of between 500 and 1000 words outlining your initial ideas and subsequent development. You’ll need to contextualise your response with photographers that you’ve looked at, and don’t forget to reference the reading that you’ve done.
Exemplars
The OCA photography forum is a useful place to discuss ideas, share work and gather informal advice for this assignment. Tutor Clive White:
‘As ever it's not about showing us decisive moments it's about the student showing us they understand the concept and can employ it creatively as a strategy in progressing their own work.’
For a view from assessment read the post on David Fletcher’s Assignment 3 on the WeAreOCA blog here:https://weareoca.com/subject/film/david-fletcher/
OCA student Steve Young used juxtaposition and ambiguity as his creative strategy (be aware that the brief has since been updated): https://createatocalevel1photograph.wordpress.com/category/assignments/assignment-3/
And another ‘inversion’ of the decisive moment from student Martyn Rainbird:
Reflection
Check your work against the assessment criteria for this course before you send it to yourtutor. Make some notes in your learning log about how well you believe your work meets each criterion. Your tutor may take a while to get back to you so carry on with the course while you’re waiting.
Reworking your assignment
Following feedback from your tutor, you may wish to rework some of your assignment, especially if you plan to submit your work for formal assessment. If you do this, make sure you reflect on what you’ve done and why in your learning log.
I started this project with the research about the decisive moment (see previous post). I like reading the assignemnt in advance, as in this way it is like planting seeds of creativity towards my next project.
While I was listening to this video I found on Youtube on the decisive moment, Ted Forbes was referring Robert Frank as the opposite to Henri Cratier-Bresson.
I love both Bresson's and Robert Frank's work, as I feel like I have two parts in my creative expression. One of them is very into aesthetic and minimalism, and one is very rebellious.
From Robert Frank's work, there was one image that strikes me, and I can look at it for hours. It is a beautiful portrait of a beautiful woman, while Frank was using his shadow to cast half of her face.
By doing so, he was not only creating more contrast and highlighting her beautiful piercing eyes, but also creating a Yin Yang feel, shadow and light.
I absolutely love this image and I spend time just looking at it.
It really inspired me to use my shadow in a certain way.
I didn't want to copy his work and just use people's faces. I also live in the country side, and didn't want to wait until I go to a more urban place to do this assignment.
I feel like the little towns nearby weren't what I wanted to shoot either, so I kept researching to gain some inspiration and creative ideas.
Because I liked Ted Forbes's opinion about the decisive moment, I went on to check some other videos of his, on this video he is presenting 3 interesting photographers while two of them are his students, and the third one is a very special Japanese photographer called Jun Miki and especially his photo book from Brazil called 'Samba Samba Brazil'.
I absolutely love the aesthetics of his work.
Source: Donlon Books
Source: Placartphoto
Because I really like Frederik Trovatten's video on how to take images like Bresson, I also wanted to check more of his work and tutorials to gain more inspiration. I really enjoyed to see his street photography slow shutter video.
I was still thinking how I can use my shadow in this project, and turned to Pinterest to search more and create a mood board of inspiration.
As I mentioned, I wanted to see how to work with landscape even though the obvious was to shoot in an urban environment.
From the documentary ‘L’amour de court’ there was a frame I really liked of Bresson's landscape photography. This inspired me very much to actually take images here in the country side and not to rush to go to an urban city to do this assignment.
I was inspired by the composition, and using landscape photography and my shadow.
I proceeded with researching further on shadow in photography.
I really liked learning what I can do with shadow in photography.
In this video Tim Jamieson reffered a photographer called Fan Ho, so I wanted to research his work too.
At this point, I decided to just head out with my camera, and let my creative expression see what I can find.
I firstly took it with me to a lunch at a winery, where I went with my family. At the end of our lunch, I saw a beautiful light as it was getting into late afternoon, and I decided to quickly grab my camera and go for a walk.
I was pretty impressed with how I could play with my shadow in the composition, and took a few images.
The following day, I did the same, at roughly a similar time of the afternoon, I took my camera on a walk in the bush, to see what I can find.
In order to show my shadow without seeing I am taking the picture, some of the images I had to take from waist hight, however I had to make sure the composition is what I wanted before I take the photo.
There were a few elements I had to take in mind, the sun direction, and how my shadow comes into play within the composition, in some cases, it didn't work as the sun was not in the direction I wanted or there was another plant or tree casting shadow on the 'right' spot I could go into the frame.
In this case, I think my approach was a bit of the 'decisive' moment, however, as I explained on the previous research, I think 'the decisive moment' is so open to interpretation.
Some would think that in order to create an image with the photographer this moment can flee in a matter of a minute, the shadows change with the sun, the wind can be also a factor etc. On the contrary some can say working with the photographer's shadow the way I did doesn't involve other people 'passing by' or a split second of a moment which will never come back.
I think it was very hard to make a precise decision on what I am working on, as the thought of exactly what to do and planning my 'ideas' put me in a bit of a blockage for creativity - while when I just went out with my camera and had fun because I was 'looking' - it came out pretty cool, and I had fun and really understood how I can express my vision as a photographer.
I took 99 images, out of them I picked 24, then 12 and eventually 9. Even though the colors of these images are so beautiful, it was clear to me that I want to make these images black and white.
I think working with shadows and using black and white over color brings out even more the contrast between darkness and light, and in this case, also the composition and my subject - which is my shadow.
Submitting my work
Reflection
I really enjoyed doing this exercise and I feel like I also learnt so much and challenged myself a lot!
I think at the end of the day, I was trying to think so much about the concept and how to stick or not stick with the idea of the decisive moment, however when I finally let go of my thinking and was just looking - I really enjoyed the process of using my shadow and other shadows in my photography.
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