The “Decisive Moment” and the Luna Moth

The phrase “The Decisive Moment,” an interpretation of the title of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s book “Images à la sauvette,” is frequently quoted in modern photojournalism. For the French painter, photography’s appeal was in its ability to capture the essential, fleeting fragments of life.

“Photography is not like painting,” Cartier-Bresson said in 1957. “… Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative.”

As a young journalist I was steeped in Cartier-Bresson, and compelled by events such as the Kent State shootings and the Iran hostage crisis to understand and interpret America’s role in the world. That led me to travel extensively in developing countries, and to train local journalists in those countries to see and record their own decisive moments.

In middle age I’ve turned to nature photography. The slow unfolding of form – in a leaf, a flower, or a moth – now intrigues me as much as pulsations of action. When I study any scene, I let my eye wander to find the exact point where a brief physical manifestation intersects with the invisible, eternal universe.

For me, this is the “decisive moment” of natural architecture.