If Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment” reflects a situation perfectly in tune with the photographer’s intuition, flawlessly combining the elements of composition and timing, then Ed Kashi’s “abandoned moment” is the result of an imprecise instant of surrender. The photos in this book are moving glimpses of transitory events filled with an untamed, frenetic energy—the perfect chaos of everyday life.

For nearly 40 years, Kashi has photographed the instantaneous imperfections that define his abandoned moment. Seeking to reconcile the dichotomy that many people like to look at photos but do not want to be photographed, already as a young practitioner Kashi stumbled upon a method of uncontrolled photographic observation. In contrast to his journalistic approach of personally connecting with his subject, keenly observing visual elements and going in-depth, in Abandoned Moments Kashi employs geometry, mood and emotion to capture spontaneous experiences with a touch of the mysterious and sometimes fictional.