Photography

Almost every photograph in this blog is unedited. I belong to the “Decisive Moment” school of thought. My formal training was back in the days of black and white film. There were no throw away shots like there are now, you paid for each and every frame you exposed. So I learned to observe, analyse and consider in my photographic work.

I use Photoshop and Creative Cloud software, but not for my photos. I like to think I have enough skill with the tool in my hand to achieve the image that conveys what I see to you.

This photograph by Henri Cartier Bresson has always encapsulated everything I try to achieve when I press the shutter. In his words…

“For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to “give a meaning” to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.

To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

To take a photograph means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second– both the fact itself and the rigorous organisation of visually perceived forms that give it meaning.

It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis.”