Living Five Seconds in the Future: A Photographer's Gift
The great photographers have all lived five seconds ahead. Consider Cartier-Bresson, possibly the greatest of all photographers and his picture of the bicycle coming past the stairs. How did this picture come to the mind of the photographer? Was it just a random chance that Cartier-Bresson was pointing his camera at that exact place, down those stairs, at that moment. To argue thus is absurd. Cartier-Bresson saw the moment coming, ahead of its occurence.
They seem to be able to anticipate the future, understanding the plethora of events unfolding around them and congealing those disparate motions and intentions into a framed still image that is going to occur in a very short period of time into the future. Once anticipated, the photographer brings the camera to his eye, positions his body and waits for the moment to occur. Even earlier, the photographer has determined what might occur in the space where he or she will be working, what the lighting conditions might be and what moments might occur. The camera and accessory lenses and image settings all anticipate the moment. With the senses tuned to this prediction, the photographer waits until, “click” the shutter is released and the image captured. It seems an art to me, that mental calculation of the future and if anticipated correctly, with the tools correctly prepared, the picture taken becomes art.
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