In other words, ‘the decisive moment’ one of the most talked about concepts in the history of photography. I am a disciple of the decisive moment if it’s possible to be one and it goes to the fundament of my practice. In simple term’s it means taking the photograph at the precise moment that defines what you are trying to photograph. You’ll notice this for sure when you look at action sports photography.  Blink and you miss it surely applies and the most stand out images from the world of sport are the most dramatic, the most memorable such as Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal at the 1986 world cup.

I argue, and I hope my work shows it, that the decisive moment is as vital in documentary photography. A large part of an MA is in forming your style and becoming more analytical of your own work.

During the two-year program, it was suggested by some colleagues that I took too few images.  They had truly embraced the digital age, much younger than me, and would take hundreds of images to my 50 or so.  Bowing to peer pressure I changed my approach pawing over 100’s of images afterwards to find THE one. And it was rarer for me to find them than before. I quickly returned to good old habits. Today when you see me work I am watching intently for all the elements to come together and when I instinctively know that I’ve captured something very special.  So key is that hyper fast reaction time to me I only work with cameras that are fast enough to keep up further defining my approach.

The Encounter images are all photographs taken either spontaneously while I am travelling or within commercial projects but which I like to think illustrate perfectly the decisive moment.