The mid. 20th Century idea of “the decisive moment” in photography embodies both the blessing and the torment of our beloved medium. The prospect that a photographer can find essential form in the flow of everyday life, and anticipate the approaching and unrepeatable moment when a scene spontaneously comes together, is the classic drive for photographers who began their practice in the analog era. My Decisive Moment series uses 3-D rendering software and is a conscious meditation on if and where “the decisive moment” resides in the digital pre- and post-conception of an image. In an era where image-makers can render both forms and happenstance without lens-based photographic capture and point-of-view, and where the anticipation of the fleeting moment is extended over weeks of desktop imaging work, my series confronts the paradoxes of contemporary image-making and its relationship to the honored premises of the medium’s history.
