> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Darren Addy
> 3) I would argue that The Decisive Moment is a myth. In the video that > Bob linked to earlier, there are several moments that would have made > for a better story telling shot than the one HCB got. In fact, his > still of that event requires an explanation of what transpired to > understand what you are looking at. The still makes no sense by itself. > To me that film sequence and the still are a perfect example of the strengths of both moving and still pictures. The still gives you the time to reflect on the event in a way that the movie does not by giving your eyes the opportunity to range over the scene and to pick up on detail such as the expressions on the people's faces. The movie reveals how quickly that moment happened. There's a brief movement of the woman's arm, which must have triggered HCB to be ready for the shot, and Bam! it's all over. I think the movie excerpt needs as much explanation as the still, and the entire film, which I have on DVD, provides that context. If you were to see that excerpt without already knowing the context you'd be just as lost. Cartier-Bresson's stills of the time were destined for Life and similar, as part of an essay with text, and that would serve the same purpose as the other film sequences and the narrative of the film itself. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
