I do not mind being mistaken for a fetishist. I mean, at what point does someone earn the imaginary right to indulge?
If you like BP L's so much here is Elliot Erwitt's bashed about beauty...
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He might even think this about"But Leica people can be a lot."
That one isn't a mirror shot, it's Feininger's portrait of Dennis Stock (the Magnum photographer who took the famous shot of James Dean walking through NYC in the rain).If I have finished shooting and I have a couple of frames left, I just rewind the film and get along to developing it. Maybe if I had a Leica, I would use those extra frames to take pictures of it. Actually, if I had a Leica, the extra frames would be in the Leica, so I couldn't take pictures of it. So I guess you really need two Leicas. If you only have one Leica, the only option is to take a picture of yourself in the mirror like Andreas Feininger. Of course, you are going to need an accessory viewfinder and a black turtleneck for the full effect.
To be honest, I think most of the 7800 photos of Leicas posted by their owners in that thread I mentioned were taken with a phone, but it's not really something I would want to say out loud. The heresy of it. But they do look pretty sharp in an unglowy sort of way. Bourgeois, in other words.
That one isn't a mirror shot, it's Feininger's portrait of Dennis Stock (the Magnum photographer who took the famous shot of James Dean walking through NYC in the rain).
That's him. But Feininger would have had no time for threads like this. One quote attributed to him is:So is this Feininger? If so, my world is turned upside down. Not only is the iconic photograph I posted not Feininger, but Feininger used a Contax.
I didn't know much about him other than that photo, but based on the Feininger quotes you posted above it seems like maybe I have an affinity for his way of thinking. Usually the whole camera equipment thing focuses on an epic battle to the death between Leica/Hasselblad and Holga, when in fact most cameras fall somehwere in between and work perfectly fine, and if you are all the time thinking about your camera your attention is just being diverted from the task at hand. .
Feininger, imo, had one of the sharpest minds in photography, with both considerable artistic talent and a high level of technical knowledge (he mocks a 'walking encyclopedia of photo-technical information' in the extract above, but it's pretty clear his own command of the technicalities was on this level!). It may not be obvious from the short extract in the earlier post that he's telling the story against himself (he'd admired what his colleagues were doing with the Leica, but found it didn't suit him, even after repeated and expensive attempts to like it). But he understands, as gear fetishists do not (and this is fetishism) that the choice of camera has only a small contribution to the final result, at least beyond a certain minimal level of technical quality, which can be had for perhaps 5% of the price of a Leica M (even a chrome one). I suspect he'd have found the idea that any camera is worthy of veneration and worship as hilarious as I do.Feininger is not the brightest man around, imo.
Scared of using a Leica because a Leica is a perfect device? For a man who preaches the virtues of equipment meant to be used instead of fondled, it seems to me the Leica was made for him.
Besides, a Black Paint Leica would have been exactly the answer. Use it and abuse it. No, this is not fetishism: a cowboy loves his boots more and more as they get used. Same as a worker and his Red Wings boots. A hairdresser with her best pair of scissors, and so on.
No, really, Leica gave the market such a GREAT product that a by-product quickly arose: veneration, worship.
In my experience, you are an exception. You talk a lot about your Leicas (and your Focomat), but you also use them extensively, and have a significant body of exceptional images to show for it.Feininger is not the brightest man around, imo.
Scared of using a Leica because a Leica is a perfect device? For a man who preaches the virtues of equipment meant to be used instead of fondled, it seems to me the Leica was made for him.
Besides, a Black Paint Leica would have been exactly the answer. Use it and abuse it. No, this is not fetishism: a cowboy loves his boots more and more as they get used. Same as a worker and his Red Wings boots. A hairdresser with her best pair of scissors, and so on.
No, really, Leica gave the market such a GREAT product that a by-product quickly arose: veneration, worship.
In my experience, you are an exception. You talk a lot about your Leicas (and your Focomat), but you also use them extensively, and have a significant body of exceptional images to show for it.
... but still today I consider my best work ever was made in 93-95, teenager, with cheap minoltas. I could never beat those years. Probably something to do with a “pure, unadulterated, virgin and sincere” vision.
Would they have been better if you had used BP Leicas?
I remember holding a Barnack at 17 and really hating it.
Why would you want it to tick that box?Ticks these boxes?
-very expensive?
..
-original design, not a copy?
..
Pretty much a Leica 3.5cm summaron wannabe with a twistey-twistIs there another 40mm 2.8 BP out there that I am not aware of? It's nothing like the Rollei (which was made by CV..)
Why would you want it to tick that box?
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