Project 8 - The Decisive Moment

As part of the work on my major project I have been taking photographs of Morris Dancers as they provide an example of the willingness of the British to wear costume that they would not wear normally, and may open them to ridicule, in order to keep alive our traditional heritage. Part of this work was to establish an understanding of what happens and whether there is a pattern to the activity that I can take advantage of to get the best images. As part of this study I began to notice that there were definable stages from the first arrival of the dancers at the place of their display to the actual dance. There was a noticeable shift from patiently waiting (sometimes there was an expression of boredom and irritation at any delay) to being fully involved in the dance to the exclusion of everything else.

After I had taken a number of 'sides' (the proper term for a group of Morris Dancers) I was reasonably confident that there was an identifiable pattern and so I returned to the images I had taken to see if this was confirmed in my photography. I was aware of the danger of 'seeing' something that I wanted to be there but feel that what follows strengthen my argument.

Where lies the 'decisive' moment. I would argue that it is at that point when the dancers are so absorbed in the intricacy of what they are doing that they are oblivious to what is going on around them. To use a modern expression  they are in "the zone". This is evident in their body language and particularly in their facial expressions.

In this image we have two of the dancers who have just arrived on the scene. The pose of the dancer on the right is one of patiently waiting as he leans against his stick and with legs crossed.

The group begins to gather together but their interest remains on what is happening elsewhere (actually another 'side' is performing).

The group begins to interact with each other as they foregather to begin their own dance.

The line up begins as the dancers move to their starting positions. Suddenly there is a seriousness and a sense of concentration about the group.

The subject of the first image is now fully involved in the dance and his whole demeanour and body language has changed as he concentrates on making sure he gets things right. I would argue that he unaware of his general surroundings.

The central figure facing us is again the subject of the first image as he is involved in what, to the general spectator, a complex and possibly dangerous sequence.

Our subject now has his back to us as he moves away from the stick sequence and the determination of his stride and movement is reflected by his fellow dancers.

The above images are in strict time sequence as I took them with, in some, cases, only a matter of seconds between two images. I originally had 12 - 15 images that fell within the time band  but decided to reduce this to the seven shown. My decision was based on providing a sequence of events but to limit the number of images to keep the viewers' interest. 

My preferred sequence would be as follows:

Leave the first four images as shown but reverse the sequence of the last three giving:

This sequence better places what I consider to be the decisive moment as we are able to concentrate on the subject of the first image as he becomes totally involved in what he is doing and is oblivious of his surroundings.