Re: Mr. Puts' Thoughts

[ireland@blazenet.net (Robert Brummett)]

>I don't think its fair to say that the Leica was built for a certain type of
>photography.  The camera has been around too long to be able to lump it into
>one catagory or another.  Perhaps I am wrong, but my reading between the
>lines of Mr. Puts letter suggests that the only proper use of a Leica is
>'street photography'.   I am certain that there were times when it was used
>as a point and shoot camera by (well heeled) amateurs as well as by
>photojournalists.  It was the only game in town.   I have baby pictures of
>myself taken by my father with a borrowed Leica  (probably a IIIC) in the
>mid fifties.  What other camera would he have used back then at that quality
>level?  Today he probably would be using a top of the line Nikon for the
>same pictures, or maybe a cheap point and shoot, or worse, a camcorder.
>Does this mean that taking baby pictures is not a proper use for a Leica
>nowadays, when it was perfectly acceptable in 1955?  I've seen pictures of
>sporting events where all of the photojournalists have Leicas around their
>necks.  Nowadays it most likely will be Canon SLR's.    It may not be
>profitable for a Leica toting photojournalist to try to compete with
>motorized autofocused cameras, but does this now mean that using an M-Leica
>at the Olympics (for example) is not a proper usage of the camera?
>
>Dan C.

I must agree that the Leica is not a restrictive camera, in the sense that
it should be used for a single type of photographic work. For several years
now I have been working on a series of pictures of a particular region in
Europe. I work with a 4x5 view camera and various 35mm instruments as well.
A very high proportion of my keepers are done with my M4 (most often with a
35/2 Summicron). Sometimes I can even do a whole session with the 4x5,
grabbing a few frames with the Leica along the way, only to discover later
that the Leica frames are the ones to print. Part of the reason for this is
that the M4 is always with me, ready to quietly and unobtrusively take
advantage of a pause in conversation, the light through a kitchen window,
the sudden appearance of a dog or chicken in a doorway. Also, I often use
it like a visual notebook: making pictures whose only excuse to exist is as
a shot-of-record or a documentation of something less artistic and emotive
than merely factual. In any situation, the M4 is likely to be the camera
nearest at hand, hanging on my left shoulder on a short strap and tucked
protectively up under my left arm. I suppose that somewhere there might be
a camera better suited to this sort of life-work, but I don't intend to
waste any time looking for it. My M4 and I seem to suit each other, and it
never complains even when I try a landscape with it rather than unpack the
4x5. It's not just a "professional camera" to me, it's a professional in
its own right.

- -Robert