The Myth of Intent in Photography: AI and the Decisive Moment

David M. M. Taffet argues that photography's value lies not in the instant of exposure but in the later act of curation, challenging the romanticized 'Decisive Moment' myth. He cites Elle Leontiev's 2026 Sony World Photography Awards win, where she shot blind on Mount Yasur in Vanuatu due to a camera malfunction, only discovering the winning portrait later. Taffet contrasts this with Henri Cartier-Bresson's iconic Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, shot without seeing through the viewfinder. He references Magnum Contact Sheets to show the iterative process behind iconic images, and Ansel Adams, who curated only 126 images from 40,000 negatives. The piece addresses AI's impact: Boris Eldagsen's 2023 AI-generated Pseudomnesia: The Electrician won a Sony award before he revealed its origin. Taffet distinguishes photography's indexical trace from AI's probabilistic mimicry, concluding that discernment in editing, not the shutter click, defines art.