photography and time - decoding the decisive moment

Photography and time: decoding the decisive moment

Photography’s relationship to time has been amongst themore complex areas of debate

withinrecentphotographictheory.Discusshowthenotionofthephotographasa ‘decisive

moment’ might be re‐examined in the light of Thierry de Duve’s reworking of Roland

Barthes’sideasandPeterWollen’scommentsinhisessay‘FireandIce’.

Rich Cutler

MA Historical & Critical Studies:

Contemporary Debates & Research Methodologies

AGM61

MA Photography: University of Brighton

January 2012

Decoding the decisive moment 1

Photography and time: decoding the decisive moment

Iprowledthestreetsallday,feelingverystrung‐upandreadytopounce,determined

to‘trap’life–topreservelifeintheactofliving.Icravedtoseize,intheconfinesofone

single photograph, the whole essence of some situation that was in the process of

unrollingitselfbeforemyeyes.

Cartier‐Bresson,TheDecisiveMoment,19521

Introduction

The‘decisivemoment’isaphrasethatisassociatedwiththephotographerHenriCartier‐

Bresson and his style of image‐making, after the title of his 1952 book The Decisive

Moment.2Morethanahalfcenturyafteritscoining,thephraseisstillwidelyused,familiar

to every photographer (Googling ‘the decisive moment’ plus ‘photograph’ gives over

2millionresults).

Thisessaywillexamine thephotographicdecisivemoment, concentratingprincipallyon

its relationshipwith time and space, in terms of the notions introduced in two critical

discoursesbyThierrydeDuve3andPeterWollen.4

Todiscussthedecisivemomentcogently,wefirstneedtounderstandpreciselywhatitis.

Similarly, before examining the decisivemoment from the perspectives of deDuve and

1 Cartier‐Bresson,H.(1952)TheDecisiveMoment.SimonandSchuster,NewYork,p.2.

2 Cartier‐Bresson’s book was translated from French into English by the publisher, and the‘decisivemoment’ inadequatelycaptures themeaningof theexpression ‘imagesà lasauvette’–literally ‘images on the run’, with an implication of furtiveness. The French phrase evokesCartier‐Bresson’spreferenceforcandidphotography,unliketheEnglishtranslation.

3 DeDuve,T.(1978)Timeexposureandthesnapshot:thephotographasparadox.October5:113–125.

4 Wollen,p.(1984)Fireandice.Photographies4:118–120.

2 Photography and time

Wollen,weneedtoclarifytheirdeliberationsontimeandphotography,startingwithan

exploration of the basic nature of the photograph – in particular, its connection with

realityandtime.

The decisive moment

Whentheshutterofacameraclicks,wecreateaphotograph:timeslicedoutofanevent

and transmuted into a picture. What makes that picture a decisive moment? It is

commonlytakentobeacrucialmomentintimearoundwhichaneventunfurls,asaquick

websearchwillprove–atypicaldefinitionbeing:5

the fleetingmomentwhen the apexof theoccurring action coincideswith theother

graphicelementswithintheframetocreatethebestpossiblecomposition.

Thisapex is theperipeteiaof literature,6 theturningpoint inanarrative;7 it iswhenthe

girlkissestheboy.Writingcanrecountaneventinitsentirety,butapicturehasonlyone

frame,andillustratinganinstantotherthanthecruxofaneventmaycommunicatemore

clearly to theviewerwhat ishappening.Letusreturn toouramorouscouple–woulda

pictureofthemamomentbeforethekiss,eyeslockedoneachother,lipsparted,notquite

touching,tellusmoreabouttheirpassionthanthekissitself?Ormaybethemomentafter,

longing and desperation apparent as they part? In painting, this is Diderot’s instant,8

Lessing’s ‘pregnantmoment’.9 Roland Barthes, the cultural theorist, called thismoment

5 DuChemin,P.(2011)PhotographicallySpeaking:ADeeperLookatCreatingStrongerImages.NewRiders,Berkeley,CA,p.85.

6 Bruner, S.B. (2002)MakingStories:Law,Literature,Life. HarvardUniversity Press, Cambridge,MA,p.5.AclassicexampleofperipeteiaisthemomentLittleRedRidingHoodcomingfacetofacewiththewolfdressedashergrandmother.

7 Thenarrative is central to this essay.As a storyteller, thephotographer’s role is to enable theviewerofaphotographtoconstructanevent–whetherfictiveornon‐fictive–fromanarrative,andtounderstandtherelationshipbetweentheevent,thestoryandtheissue.Visualcontextisthuscrucial:whatisleftoutoftheframe,whatiskeptin,andtherelationshipbetweenobjects.

8 Clark,A.H.(2008)Diderot’sPart.Ashgate,Aldershot,p.114.

9 Lessing,G.E.(1853).Laocoon:AnEssayontheLimitsofPaintingandPoetry(trans.E.C.Beasley).Longman,Brown,Green,andLongmans,London,pp.102,132.Originalpublication inGerman:Lessing,G.E. (1766)Laokoon:oderüberdieGrenzenderMahlereyundPoesie…MitbeyläufigenErläuterungenverschiedenerPunktederaltenKunstgeschichte.Voss,Berlin.


the ‘hieroglyph’10–apicturewith imbuedmeaning. It isamomentchosenso that ‘what

hasalreadytakenplace,andwhatisabouttofollow,canbemosteasilygathered’,11andwe

cansee‘thepresent,thepast,andthefuture’.12

Figure 1. Orpheus and Eurydice (Rubens, 1636–37)

ThereisataleinGreekmythologyaboutthemusicianOrpheus,whowaspermittedtotake

hiswife Eurydice back from death and the underworld on one condition: that hewalk

beforeherandneverlookbackuntilreachingtheworldoftheliving.Buthelookedback…

Rubens paints thismyth not at the instantwhen Orpheus turns his head and Eurydice

returns to death – the peripeteia – but before (Figure 1). Rubens’s avoidance of the

10Barthes, R. (1974) Diderot, Brecht, Eisenstein. In: Image,Music, Text. Fontana Press, London,p.73. Original publication in French: Barthes, R. (1973) Diderot, Brecht, Eisenstein. Revued’Esthétique26:185–191.

11 Lessing,G.E.(1853).Op.cit.,p.102.

12Barthes,R.(1974)Op.cit.,p.73.


peripeteia imbues thepaintingwithdramaand increases the senseofnarrative:wesee

OrpheusandEurydice leavingHadesandPersephone,buthe isgrim‐faced,strugglingto

keephiseyesoffhiswife,andforebodingoverwhelmsus;inourimaginationweembark

with him on his journey towards the light, pitying the couple as we anticipate their

tragedy.13

In photography, this instant is Eisenstadt’s ‘story‐telling moment’,14 Cartier‐Bresson’s

‘decisivemoment’.

HowdidCartier‐Bresson–theoriginatorofthephrase–articulatethedecisivemoment?

HedefinedhisstyleofphotographyveryspecificallyinTheDecisiveMoment:15

thesimultaneousrecognition,inafractionofasecond,ofthesignificanceofanevent

as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper

expression.

Withitsemphasisondepictingthesignificanceofanevent,thisechoesLessing’s‘pregnant

moment’ in painting. But there is a difference: Cartier‐Bresson explicitly mentions

composition; Lessing does not do so in the Laocoon, but composition is implied (as a

natural part of painting). Cartier‐Bresson is correct to be explicit, acknowledging the

difference in how paintings and photographs are made, and the latter’s capacity for

automaticity(reproductionbymachine,ratherthancreationbyman).

So,thedecisivemomentaccordingtoCartier‐Bressonisaconfluenceofbothspace(form

resulting in a picture) and time (an event creating a narrative). This is clear from his

13An interesting evidence‐based experiment investigating the psychological reality of Lessing’sLaocoon presented participants with a set of pictures (including paintings and photographs)showingapregnantmoment,andobservers(allwithoutformaltraininginvisualart)wereaskedto spontaneously describe the images (unfamiliar to the observers, and removed from theiroriginal contexts). The findings support Lessing’s contention that the depiction of a pregnantmomentresultsintheviewertranslatingapictureintoacomplexnarrative.Thenarrativesweretemporal, and included exposition, complication and resolution, and were strongly correlatedwiththenarrativeelementsinthepictures.See:Shen,Y.andBiberman,E.(2010)Astorytoldbyapicture.ImageandNarrative11(2):177–197.

14 Encyclopaedia Britannica Online – Alfred Eisenstaedt, www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/181526/Alfred‐Eisenstaedt[accessed16/1/2012].

15 Cartier‐Bresson,H.(1952)Op.cit.,p.12.


definitionabove,andhisspecificuseoftheterm‘picture‐story’inTheDecisiveMomentfor

animagethatforegroundsbothcomposition(space)andcontent(time):16

Sometimes there isoneuniquepicturewhosecompositionpossesses suchvigorand

richness,andwhosecontentsoradiatesoutward from it, that this singlepicture isa

wholestoryinitself.

Figure 2. Siphnos, Greece (H. Cartier-Bresson, 1961)

AnexaminationofCartier‐Bresson’sphotographsshowsthatmanycontainthespace–time

characteristic of his decisivemoment. Consider, for example, Figure 2. Compositionally,

thephotographexcels– theechoingof rectangles, thebalancebetween lightandshade,

the shadowmirroring the girl’s posture, the girl perfectly placed; a consummate visual

climax. But it also depicts an event – there is a narrative, a past and futurewe cannot

know:Wherehasthegirlrunfrom?Whereisshegoing?Whyissherunning?AndCartier‐

Bressonhasstoppedtheeventatamomentthatcompelsus:thegirlisinmid‐flight,and

wearejustintimetoglimpseherbeforeshedisappearsaroundacorner.Theintersection

oftimeandspacecombinedinasublimedramaticclimax.



However,wehaveomittedacrucialelement fromCartier‐Bresson’sdefinition–thatthe

eventassociatedwiththedecisivemomentshouldbeaspontaneousencounter,unaffected

by the photographer: ‘“Manufactured” or staged photography does not concernme’, he

wrote17(Figure3).Thiscriterionisuniquetophotography,andisintimatelyboundtothe

direct creation of the photograph by reality, unlike other pictures: you can create a

paintingfrommemorybutnotaphotograph.

Figure 3. A pregnant moment but not a decisive moment: Gregory Crewdson stages his photographs using actors (untitled, G. Crewdson, 1998)

17 Cartier‐Bresson,H.(1999)TheMind’sEye:WritingsonPhotographyandPhotographers.Aperture,NewYork,p.15.


Eisenstadt,likeCartier‐Bresson,wasadocumentaryphotographer,andheimpliedthathis

story‐telling moment too should be candid, saying his aim was ‘to find and catch the

storytellingmoment’.18

Others,forexampleSzarkowski,19construethedecisivemomentdifferently,consideringit

not to be the dramatic zenith of an event but a visual climax –when form and pattern

cohere to achieve balance, clarity and order: ‘The result is not a story but a picture’.20

Roberts21 holds a similar view: for him, the decisive moment ‘does not represent the

imaginedmomentof temporal intensity…[but] themomentwhenthe internalelements

ofanobservedsceneappear,subjectively,tocoherepictorially’.Forthem,Cartier‐Bresson

istreatingthephotographlikeapainting,hishighlyaestheticisedimagescreatingafictive

narrative that severs, or at least warps, the photograph’s connection with reality: the

photograph no longer revolves around the actual event and truth but around Cartier‐

Bresson.Thereisvaliditytothisviewpoint,but,whenwereturntothedecisivemoment

laterinthisessay,wewillholdtoitsdefinitionassimplythatinstantduringanunstaged

eventwhentheelementsinthesceneformacompositionthatconveysthesignificanceof

theevent,andconsidertheresultingphotographtobehavetwinaspects:‘event‐like’and

‘picture‐like’.

As a coda to this section, it should be noted that although we associate the decisive

momentwithmotion(Figure4,left),movementinaneventisnotalwaysovert(Figure4,

right). In the right‐handphotograph, theelderlywomanglancingat the girl is anevent,

albeitan introspectiveone–andanarrativespoolsoffaswithanyotherevent:Dothey

knoweachother?Isagemourninglostyouth?Thegenerationgap…

18 EncyclopaediaBritannicaOnline–AlfredEisenstaedt.Op.cit.

19 Szarkowski,J.(1966)ThePhotographer’sEye.MuseumofModernArt,NewYork,pp.10,100.

20 Ibid.,p.10.It isofnotethatSzarkowskiheldtheconvictionthatphotographyasamediumwaspooratstory‐telling:‘photographyhasneverbeensuccessfulatnarrative’(ibid.,p.9).

21Roberts, J. (2009) Photography after the photograph: event, archive, and the non‐symbolic.OxfordArtJournal32(2):281.


Figure 4. (L) Place de l’Europe, Paris, 1932. (R) Brasserie Lipp, Paris, 1969. (H. Cartier-Bresson)

Photography and time

The mirror with a memory: Henry Fox Talbot and Roland Barthes

Sincetheinceptionofphotography,ithasbeenrecognisedthatthereisaunique,tangible

connectionbetweenthephotograph,itssubjectandtime.HenryFoxTalbot,thecreatorof

thecalotypeprocess,22wrotethefollowingontheformationofthephotographicimagein

1844,inThePencilofNature:23

22 The precursor to negative–positive film with which we are all familiar and that dominatedphotographyuntiltherecentascendencyofthedigitalsensor.

23 Fox Talbot,W.H. (1844)ThePencil ofNature, Part 1. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans,London. Available online: Project Gutenberg – ebook 33447,www.gutenberg.org/files/33447/33447‐pdf.pdf,p.4[accessed16/1/2012].ThePencilofNatureisconsideredtobethefirstbookillustratedbyphotographs–whatwetodaywouldcalla‘photobook’.


Now Light, where it exists, can exert an action, and, in certain circumstances, does

exertonesufficienttocausechangesinmaterialbodies.Suppose,then,suchanaction

couldbeexertedonthepaper;andsupposethepapercouldbevisiblychangedbyit.In

that case surely some effectmust result having a general resemblance to the cause

whichproducedit…

It is this connectionwith reality that differentiates the photograph from other pictorial

mediasuchaspainting,andliesatthecoreofitssingularityasamedium,asalsonotedby

FoxTalbot:24

[Photographs] differ in all respects, and as widely as possible, in their origin, from

platesoftheordinarykind,whichowetheirexistencetotheunitedskilloftheArtist

andtheEngraver.TheyareimpressedbyNature'shand…

This ontological duality of the photograph is concisely summarised by Sontag, in her

infuential1977bookOnPhotography:25

aphotographisnotonlyanimage(asapaintingisanimage),aninterpretationofthe

real; itis also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a

deathmask.

Sontag’ssimilesalludetothepassingoftime:thefootprintandthedeathmaskhavebeen

leftbehind–whatmadethemhasmovedon.

Timeandphotographyareinseparable.In1859,Holmes26coinedaphrasethathasechoed

down150years,27callingphotography‘this…inventionofthemirrorwithamemory’.The

photographisthusadichotomousobject–areflectionofthepastinthepresent.Roland

Barthes examined thisdichotomy in a seminaldiscourseon semiotics andphotography,

‘Rhetoricoftheimage’,28andconsideredtherelationshipbetweenthephotographicimage

andtimetobe‘unprecedented’:thephotographisatruthfulrepresentationofanobjectin

the past, and thus, unlike othermedia, we are presented with what Barthes terms the

24 FoxTalbot,W.H.(1844)Op.cit.,p.1.

25 Sontag,S.(1977)OnPhotography.Farrar,StraussandGiroux,NewYork,p.154.

26Holmes,O.W.(1859)Thestereoscopeandthestereograph.AtlanticMonthly3(20):733–748.

27 Forexample, see:Krakauer,S. (1980)Photography. In:A.Trachtenberg (ed.),ClassicEssaysonPhotography.Leete’sIslandBooks,NewHaven,CT,pp.245–268.

28Barthes, R. (1974) Rhetoric of the image. In: Image,Music,Text. Fontana Press, London, p.44.OriginalpublicationinFrench:Barthes,R.(1964)Rhétoriquedel’image.Communication4:46–47.


‘having‐been‐there’ of the object. He then stated that all representations (paintings,

photographs, sculptures, etc.) of an object evoke its presence – the ‘being‐there’ of the

object–whichbringsusbacktoourdichotomy:thephotographconflatesthepresentand

thepast–inBarthes’swords,29

What we have is a new space–time category: spatial immediacy and temporal

anteriority, thephotographbeingan illogical conjunctionbetween thehere–now and

thethere–then’.

Nowandherewearelookingatapicture,but,unlikeotherkindsofimage(say,apainting),

thephotographhastheuniquepropertyofmakingusawareofitsmaking–thereinsome

otherplaceandtheninthepast:theinextricablebindingtogetherofanobjectwithtime.30

Figure 5. A View of the Boulevards at Paris (W.H. Fox Talbot, May 1843)

29 Ibid.,p.44.

30 Therelationshipofthephotographwithrealitycanbediscussedmoreformallybyconsideringitasasemioticsign intermsofPeirce’s index/icon/symboltriad,butthis isoutsidethescopeofthisessay.Forabasicintroduction,see:Wright,T.(2004)ThePhotographyHandbook,2ndedn.Routledge,London,pp.81–85.


Thephotographisthusamostpeculiarentity,seemingtoexistsimultaneouslyinthepast

and in the present. In The Pencil of Nature, Fox Talbot uses the present tense when

describinghis calotypes:underaParisianscene (Figure5),weread ‘Theweather ishot

and dusty’,31 but looking at the photograph changes the tense, and historical reality

irrupts:onespringdaylongagoinParistheweatherwashotanddusty.

A twist in time: Thierry de Duve

The Belgian theorist Thierry de Duve believes that photographic time is more than a

simple evocation of the past (Barthes’s ‘having‐been‐there’32). In his article ‘Time

exposureandsnapshot: thephotographasparadox’,deDuveacknowledgesanotionwe

met earlierwhen defining the decisivemoment: that a photograph can be perceived in

eitheroftwoways–‘event‐like’or‘picture‐like’.

If we see the photograph as ‘event‐like’, it is a frozen moment that cannot reveal the

entiretyof theevent – bydefinition anongoingprocess: indeDuve’swords, ‘adevilish

devicedesignedtocapturelifebutunabletoconveyit’that‘freezesonstagethecourseof

lifethatgoesonoutside’.33Alternatively,thephotographisperceivedaspicture‐like:itis

thenanimagethatnolongerhasanyconnectionwiththeevent–simplyapicturethatis

evidenceof thepast: it ‘protractsonstagea life thathasstoppedoffstage’.34 Jussim35has

the former perceptionwhen looking at Cartier‐Bresson’s photograph of aman jumping

overapuddle(seeFigure4,left):‘hasCartier‐Bressoninhis“decisivemoment”somehow

abstractedthisfellowfromalltime?’

Whichcategoryofperceptionprevailsisdependentonthetypeofimage.DeDuvecallsthe

‘event‐like’photographa‘snapshot’,referencingtheshortexposuretimethatfreezesmotion,

anexamplebeingthetypicalnewsphotograph(Figure6);the‘picture‐like’photographhe

terms a ‘time exposure’, suggesting the long exposure time and static subjects of early

portraiture (Figure 7). De Duve’s ‘snapshot’ and ‘time exposure’ are thus ciphers for

categoriesofphotographicimageswithspecificvisualqualitiesrelatedtoperception.

31 FoxTalbot,W.H.(1844)Op.cit.,p.17.

32Barthes,R.(1974)Op.cit.,p.44.

33DeDuve,T.(1978)Op.cit.,p.113.

34DeDuve,T.(1978)Ibid.

35 Jussim,E.(1989)TheEternalMoment:EssaysonthePhotographicImage.Aperture,NewYork,p.53.


Figure 6. Rioting in Croydon – a woman leaps from a burning building (A. Weston, 2011)

Figure 7. The ‘time exposure’: the traditional portrait falls into this category (Napa, California, photographer unknown, c. 1910)


Regardless ofwhether a photograph is categorised as a snapshot or a time exposure, a

photograph is perceived as a paradox – both ‘event‐like’ and ‘picture‐like’: these

perceptionsaremutuallyexclusiveandoscillatewhenwelookataphotograph;andeach

hasadistinctivepsychologicalresponse.

DeDuvegoesontosaythatthesnapshot(seeFigure6)presentsuswith‘anunperformed

movement that refers to an impossible posture’.36 In reality – when the snapshot was

taken–timedidnotstandstill,andthemovementwasperformed,experiencedvisuallyas

fluidity;inrealtimewecanneverseethefrozenpostureofthesnapshot.Whatthecamera

showsusthuscontradictsoureyeandbrain,and,despitethesnapshotostensiblyshowing

truth,aposturefromreality,suchimageslookunnatural:thesnapshotfailstoconveythe

sensationofmovement.AsthesculptorAugusteRodinoncedeclared:‘Itistheartistwho

tellsthetruthandphotographythatlies.Forinrealitytimedoesnotstandstill.’37

In contrast, the time exposure (see Figure 7) is experienced in the oppositeway to the

snapshot:thereiscongruencebetweenthestillnessoftheimageandthelackofmovement–

the stasis – in its past reality: unlike the snapshot, the time exposuredepicts life aswe

actuallyseeit,andhencewedonotexperiencetheabruptartificialityofthesnapshot.

As we saw earlier, Barthes described our perception of a photograph as being a

conjunction of ‘here–now’ (the image) and ‘there–then’ (reality). De Duve breaks down

thisparadoxicalrelationshipintotwonewspatiotemporalconjunctions:here–thenforthe

snapshot,andthere–nowforthetimeexposure.38AswithBarthes’spairingofthepresent

andthepast,deDuve’sconjunctionstooareillogical,so,whenwelookataphotograph,he

suggests that ourperceptionoscillatesbetweenhere and then for a snapshot, and there

andnowforatimeexposure.


37Rodin, A. andGsell, p.(1984)Art:ConversationswithPaulGsell. University of California Press,Berkeley,CA,p.20.Originallypublishedin1911.

38De Duve’s use of ‘formerly’ does not accord with the English translation of Barthes’s article,which uses ‘then’ – possibly because de Duve read Barthes’s essay in its original French. Forconsistency,‘then’isusedthroughoutthisessay.


When we look at a snapshot, we experience time suddenly splitting into the past and

future–alwaystoolatetowitnesstheeventortooearly:thewomaninFigure6 landed

safely in reality,but shehasyet todoso in thephotograph.Theevent isnothappening

now: itoccurred then.This splittingof time isgeneratedby the image– the ‘impossible

posture’–here.Incontrast,thetimeexposuredepictsastate,notanevent(i.e.stasisnot

movement),and,asthereisnopastorfuturetimetospoolofftheimage,werelatetothe

image temporally in the present,now. Its reality is also static and thus associatedwith

space, not time (i.e. not then), locating it there in the past. De Duve summarised the

relationshipof these twotypesofphotograph to timeas follows: ‘thesnapshotrefers to

the fluency of time without conveying it, the time exposure petrifies the time of the

referentanddenotesitasdeparted’.39

Thesetwoperceptionsevokedifferentpsychologicalresponses.DeDuvesuggeststhatthe

‘here–then’paradoxofthesnapshotissuchanabruptdichotomythatviewingthistypeof

photographisexperiencedastrauma,whereaslookinginsteadatatimeexposureinduces

afeelingofloss,amelancholyforthepastasmemoryebbsandflows.

However,althoughdeDuve’sdiscourseisundeniablyappealing–photographsofevents

doseemtoevincedifferentemotionscomparedwithphotographsofstaticobjects,and

de Duve posits a thoughtful and complex visual and psychological schema – it is

subjective,andtheliteratureappearsbereftofcorroboratingevidence.Forexample,de

Duveprovidesnoevidenceforhissemioticmechanism,andamoreintuitivesubdivision

of Barthes's deictic construct would be ‘here–there’ (spatial) and ‘now–then’

(temporal)40–binariescommonlymetwithinpsychology,41unlikedeDuve’s,whichare

notmentioned.It isthenpossibletoalignevent‐likephotographswith ‘now–then’,and

picture‐likephotographswith ‘here–there’,theformerimagecategorybeingconcerned


40 This tentativemechanismhas been posited simply to support the argument that deDuve hasfailedtoprovideempiricalevidenceforhisschema,thusallowingforalternativehypotheses.Itisoutside the scopeof this essay to examine thismechanismclosely for veracity, and it remainsuntested.

41 Forexample:Benson,C.(2001)TheCulturalPsychologyofSelf:Place,MoralityandArtinHumanWorlds.Routledge,London,p.10.


withtime,thelatterwithspace.Thevisualdissonanceofthesnapshotcanconsequently

be explained in terms of discord between the image and reality, creating an abrupt

oscillation in perception: we accept the photograph as a record of an event, but the

frozenposture is impossible(asdeDuvediscusses),andpastreality is invoked,where

the fluidity of the completed event exists and accordswith our sensibilities. The time

exposure is static, and the image matches our expectations of reality, so (concurring

withdeDuve)thereisacyclicalperception,asthepresentmergesseamlesslyintopast

realityandre‐emerges.

AfurthercriticismisthatdeDuve’sapproachisresolutelyFreudianpsychoanalytical,and

appeal tocontemporarypsychology42wouldallowotherhypotheses.Forexample,asan

alternativetotrauma,thearousalassociatedwiththesnapshotcanbeexplainedinterms

of curiosity (the need to seek stimulation and explore)43 – a drive hardwired into our

genesthataidedthesurvivalofourancestorsontheAfricanplains,risk‐takersbeingmore

successful (e.g.betterhunters).Therearevariousstimuli that triggercuriosity,ofwhich

the most significant are termed ‘collative’: their characteristics include contradiction,

novelty,uncertaintyandcomplexity–allpropertiesdefiningthesnapshotandtheeventit

depicts,butnotthetimeexposure.

Not a tense moment: Peter Wollen

PeterWollen,inhisarticleFireandIce,44alsodiscussesthesemioticrelationshipbetween

photographyandtime,andsuggeststhatthisismorecomplexthanitseems.However,ina

42 Today,psychologyisadisciplinerootedinempiricism,makingtestableinferencesabouthumanmental processes – such as de Duve’s concern here, perception. Freud’s work is considered bymodernpsychologists tobevague,archaicandobsolete.Somecriticshaveaparticularlyharshview: ‘there is literally nothing to be said, scientifically or therapeutically, to the advantage ofthe entire Freudian system or any of its component dogmas’ (Crews, F. (1996) The verdicton Freud.Psychological Science7(2): 63). See also: Kihlstrom, J.F. (2000). Is Freud still alive?Freud’s influence on psychology has been that of a dead weight. In: Atkinson, R. et al. (eds),Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology, 13th edn. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, p.481.Availableonline:http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/freuddead.htm[accessed16/1/2012].Seealsofootnote48,onp.21.

43 Forexample,usingBerlyne’stheoryofcuriosity.See:Silvia,P.J.(2006)ExploringthePsychologyofInterest.OxfordUniversityPress,NewYork,p.33.

44Wollen,p.(1984)Op.cit.


volte‐face from Barthean discourses contrasting the temporality of the photographic

present(theimage)andthephotographicpast(reality),heinvestigatesnarrativetime.

Beforecontinuing,abriefoverviewoftheverbsystemwillproveuseful.Verbsdescribea

process, an event or a state: a process is an ongoing situation that results in a state,

punctuatedbyevents;aneventisanactionwithadefinitestartandend;andastateisan

unchangingsituation.Verbsarecategorisedbytenseandaspect.Tenselocatesanactionin

external time – the past, present or future – while aspect is concerned with only the

internal time of the action, and denotes its temporal structure (inception, duration,

completion,etc.),whetherinthepast,presentorfuture.Aspecthastwoforms,perfective

(completedactions)andimperfective(uncompletedactions),so,forexample,‘hesawher’

and‘hewillhaveseenher’areperfective,while ‘hewasseeingher’and‘heseesher’are

imperfective.

Abasicnarrativesequencecompriseselementsintheorderprocess→event→state,and,

being a static image, a photograph cannot show an entire narrative but only a single

narrativeelement.

Wollen’spremise is that lookingatphotographic imagesas elementsofnarrative– as a

process,eventorstate–andataspect(‘internaltime’)ratherthantense(‘externaltime’)

mayprovideadditionalinsightsintothesemioticsofphotographybysteppingoutsideof

theusualpolarisedapproachtophotographictimeofthepresentversusthepast.

As evidence,Wollen first examines captions, andnotes concordancebetween theverbal

form of captions and titles to photographs and image content,which, he conjectures, is

explainedbyanintuitiverecognitionofthenarrativeformdepicted(e.g.Wollengoesonto

suggestthefollowingbroadschemefordifferentphotographicgenres:mostdocumentary

photographs signify a state (sometimesaprocess, i.e. susceptible to interruption);news

photographs, an event; and art photographs, a state. This, then, provides a context for

informed interrogation of the photographic image. As Green comments,45 excluding

45Green,D. (2006)Markingtime:photography, filmandtemporalitiesof the image. In:Green,D.and Lowry, J. (eds), Stillness and Time: Photography and the Moving Image. Photoworks/Photoforum,Brighton,p.18.


external time while analysing internal time through aspect allows notions of time in a

photographsuchaschange,duration,orderinganddemarcationtobeexplored.Thiscan

not only help us to understand the photographic image but also clarify its cultural and

socialcontext.

Wollenalsopondersthestasisofthephotographicimage–itsfrozentime–seeingaptness

when it depicts stillness (state) but paradoxical incongruity when it signifies motion

(eventorprocess).

AmbiguitycanbeaproblemwithWollen’sapproach.Asaphotographicimageisstatic,it

can be unclear from a single photograph whether a process, event or a state is being

depicted: forexample,doesFigure8showaprocess(‘she is lyingonthebed’),anevent

(‘shelayonthebed’)orastate(‘sheliesonthebed’)?

Figure 8. Process, event or state? Untitled #3764 (T. Hido, 2005)


The decisive moment decoded

Inspiteofpotentialweaknesses,deDuve’s schemahelpsus tounderstandwhywe find

photographs of the decisive moment so compelling. First, photographs of the decisive

moment depict an event. They thus fall within de Duve’s snapshot category, which

explainsthetensionwefeelwhenlookingatadecisivemomentsuchasthatinHaPhan,

Vietnam (Figure9): the unease is partly, of course, becausewe are awareof impending

violenceanddeathinthisexample,butthisfeelingisinnatetodeDuve’ssnapshot,which

depictsarealobjectfrozeninaseeminglyimpossibleposition.Thereisanextraordinary

video installation by the artist David Claerbout, in which the plane from Mine’s

photograph is extracted and composited against an animated background sequence of

photographs,takenbyClaerboutclosetothepositionofthe1967image(Figure10).46The

installationappearsinitiallytobeaphotograph,thedisintegratingplanesuspendedovera

still jungle,butthenslightmovementisnoticed,ascloudsandshadowsinthelandscape

subtlyandslowlychange;theplaneremainsquiescent,frozenintime.Thefeelingthatthis

video arouses as we try to reconcile actual reality with depicted reality is disturbing,

highlighting in no uncertain terms de Duve’s ‘unperformed movement’ referring to an

‘impossible posture’:watching the video is vertiginous – like teetering on the edge of a

precipice,waitingtofall.

Secondly, photographs of the decisive moment are defined by their very deliberate

pictorial composition. Consider Figure 9: the parts of the plane cupped by the hills, the

linesofhillsintersectingjustundertheplane,thesymmetrybetweenthebuildingsonthe

leftandright,theinterplaybetweenthedarktreesandthetailfin,thedemarcationofthe

foregroundbyalineofbushes…

This equivalencybetweenbeing ‘event‐like’ and ‘picture‐like’ allowsphotographs of the

decisive moment to oscillate readily between de Duve’s time exposure and snapshot

categories – our gaze changing from calm contemplation to stupefied and back again.

This duality of perception elicited by the decisivemoment is a plausible explanation of

itsallure.

46Green, D. (ed.) (2004)VisibleTime:TheWorkofDavidClaerbout. Photoworks, Brighton, p.32.Hölzl,I.(2011)Thephotographicnow:DavidClaerbout’sVietnam.Intermédialités17:131–145.


Figure 9. US plane shot down by friendly fire (Ha Phan, Vietnam, H. Mine, 1967 – Spot News second prize, World Press Photo Contest 1967)

Figure 10. Still from Vietnam, 1967, near Duc Pho (Reconstruction after Hiromichi Mine) (D. Claerbout, 1991 – large-screen video installation)


De Duve has thus shown us that there is something unique in how we perceive

photographsofthedecisivemomentcomparedwithstaticimages,and,evenifhisschema

is refined in the future, it has contributed towards creating a critical theoretical

frameworkforthedecisivemoment.

Wollen’sapproachtotimeshedsfurtherlightonthedecisivemomentbyplacingemphasis

onnarrative.Examining thenewsphotographHaPhan,Vietnam fromthisperspective,47

wenotetheimperfectiveaspect– ‘theplaneisfalling’.Thenarrativeelementisanevent

(not a process, which the documentary genre would imply), so the interest lies not

primarilyinthesituationitselfbutinhowitstartsandends,implyingquestionssuchas:

Whydidtheplanefall?Whatisgoingtohappen?Onceweknowtheimmediateanswers–

that it was shot down by friendly fire, and the ensuing crash killed the entire crew –

associatedquestionsarise:Whydidthisoccur?Wasfriendlyfirecommonplace?Didthis

hauntingphotographaffectpublicopinion?

Concluding remarks

Wehavecontemplatedwhatcomprisesthedecisivemoment,thengoneontoinvestigatea

possible underlying visual and psychological mechanism (applying de Duve’s insights),

followed by a closer look at how narration works in this type of photograph (using

Wollen’sdiscourse).Bothapproaches toexamining thedecisivemoment areuseful, and

complementeachother:theformerofferingapossibleexplanationofwhyphotographsof

the decisivemoment are so visually potent, the latter clarifying the signification of the

image–whatitistellingus.Itseemsthatnotionsoftimearecentraltounderstandingthe

decisivemoment.

There are shortcomings with both approaches, but these do not affect their base

frameworksnor their application to thedecisivemoment, provided theweaknesses are

borne inmind.Anotabledrawback todeDuve’sdiscourse ishisadherence toFreudian

psychoanalysis:thathistwodefiningcategoriesofphotographicimage–thesnapshotand

the time exposure – evoke very different psychological responses is not contended, but

47 Thisisastraightforwardexampletodeconstruct,butitsufficestoshowtheprinciple.ExaminingToddHido’sambiguousphotographinFigure8(p.17)wouldbemoreinteresting,butisoutsidethescopeof thisessay,beingstagedandnotadecisivemoment.Picturestories–sequencesofphotographs–wouldalsobeamenabletoinvestigationusingWollen’sideas.


modernpsychologyisascience,anddemandsempiricism:CATscanningandneuroscience

arerelevanttopsychologytoday,notFreud.48

Finally, Cartier‐Bresson oncewrote the following – an apposite note onwhich to end a

discussiononthedecisivemoment:49

To takephotographsmeans torecognize–simultaneouslyandwithina fractionofa

second–boththefactitselfandtherigorousorganizationofvisuallyperceivedforms

thatgiveitmeaning.Itisputtingone’shead,one’seyeandone’sheartonthesameaxis.

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photography and time - decoding the decisive moment

Documents

de duve

fox talbot

decisive moment

fontana press

13th edn

classic essays

friendly fire

impossible posture