決定的瞬間

Henri Cartier - Bresson

French, b. 1908, d. 2004

Born in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, Henri Cartier-Bresson developed a strong fascination with painting early on, and particularly with Surrealism. In 1932, after spending a year in the Ivory Coast, he discovered the Leica - his camera of choice thereafter - and began a life-long passion for photography. In 1933 he had his first exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. He later made films with Jean Renoir.
Taken prisoner of war in 1940, he escaped on his third attempt in 1943 and subsequently joined an underground organization to assist prisoners and escapees. In 1945 he photographed the liberation of Paris with a group of professional journalists and then filmed the documentary Le Retour (The Return).
In 1947, with Robert Capa, George Rodger, David 'Chim' Seymour and William Vandivert, he founded Magnum Photos. After three years spent travelling in the East, in 1952 he returned to Europe, where he published his first book, Images à la Sauvette (published in English as The Decisive Moment).
He explained his approach to photography in these terms, '"For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression."
From 1968 he began to curtail his photographic activities, preferring to concentrate on drawing and painting. In 2003, with his wife and daughter, he created the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris for the preservation of his work. Cartier-Bresson received an extraordinary number of prizes, awards and honorary doctorates. He died at his home in Provence on 3 August 2004, a few weeks short of his 96th birthday.

「決定的瞬間」という言葉はこの人カルティエ・ブレッソンが述べた言葉であったことなどとうに忘れ去られ、陳腐に成り果ててしまった感があります。
しかし、芝居をしているとき、たえず僕の頭の中を過ぎるのがブレッソンの「決定的瞬間」なのです。
僕が俳優たちに繰り返し言う「モーメント」とはまさにこのこと。
一瞬にして通り過ぎていくかけがえのない「瞬間」。
俳優たちは芝居という作為的な疑似空間を生きながら、それでもなお真実の瞬間と向き合います。瞬間は作為できないのです。だからこそ、毎回芝居は異なったモノになり、一瞬一瞬が新鮮で新しい、つまり芝居とは固定することができない流れ続け変化し続ける流動体そのものです。
ブレッソンのDecisive Momentという考えは、僕の演劇観と合致しています。
そして、ここに彼の撮った一枚の写真があります。
サミュエル・ベケット。

Samuel Beckett   At home, Paris 1964.

鋭い眼光と孤独を抱えた一人の劇作家の風貌。
この静かな一枚の写真に「演劇」と「写真」の出逢いを感じます。撮影者と被写体が言葉ではなくモーメントを共有することで意思の疎通をしあっていることが見てとれます。
決定的瞬間とは、時には振り向きざまに、あるいは視線をふいに落としたときにやって来るのかもしれません。
決定的瞬間とは、今そこに在りながら、人がなかなか見つけられないでいる「時の一点」のこと。
その時の一点こそ、人生を人生たらしめているものかもしれません。

ブレッソンの言葉：

Quote: "To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life." 
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a Magnum founder and a full Member since 1947.