Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, considered one of the first true street photographers, coined the term “Decisive Moment”. Street photography is about capturing subjects naturally and spontaneously, without posing for the camera. Can decisive moments be created?

I explore what is happening around me. Ears, eyes, and nose are attentive, waiting for the moment that is artistically appealing and conveys a story. Sometimes smells and sounds lead you towards something interesting happening right in front of you. On other occasions, you have to wait for someone to walk into a half-lighted, half-dark area to create an interesting composition.

It is luck and patience working in tandem to get time, light, and subjects correct. At times, I wonder how different the photo would be if it had been taken just a few seconds later or earlier.

In his book titled The Decisive Moment, Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote:

“Sometimes it happens that you stall, delay, wait for something to happen. Sometimes you have the feeling that here are all the makings of a picture – except for just one thing that seems to be missing. But what one thing? Perhaps someone suddenly walks into your range of view. You follow his progress through the viewfinder. You wait and wait, and then finally you press the button – and you depart with the feeling (though you don’t know why) that you’ve really got something. Later, to substantiate this, you can take a print of this picture, trace on it the geometric figures which come up under analysis, and you’ll observe that, if the shutter was released at the decisive moment, you have instinctively fixed a geometric pattern without which the photograph would have been both formless and lifeless.”

Street Photography is about telling a story through composition and light by clicking at the exact moment. An event that may never happen again is frozen in the frame.

Text and photos by Prerna Jain.