Henri Cartier-Bresson

The lesson: timing. Cartier-Bresson found the Leica in 1932 and used it for the rest of his career, and his first book, Images à la Sauvette (1952), reached English readers as The Decisive Moment, a phrase that still names the whole idea of catching the instant when everything in the frame falls into place. Study Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (1932), caught just before a leaping man's foot splashes down in a puddle, then notice how often his pictures rest on a strong setting he seems to have found first and waited in front of. That habit of choosing the stage and letting people walk into it is the easiest of his ideas to copy on day one. He also co-founded Magnum Photos in 1947, and its archive keeps his work easy to browse.