Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/22
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At 22:35 21/03/1997 -0800, Jim Brick gave us another example of
distinguished thought:
<snip>
>You guys are falling into the Oddmund black hole yet again. You ought to
>know by now that he doesn't give a damn about Leicas, or even photography.
<snip> continuing the naming...
...and even some poetry at the end
>There is an Odd Man from France,
>Who, on the net, does a dance,
>He disgorges his wit,
>But is really full of S***,
>And (for an unknown reason) leaves everybody in a trance!
I shall do no further comments about this outstanding masterpiece. It speaks
for itself.
Other members of the honorable group brought us their 'analyses'. I leave
these as well.
What I would say, is that I don't understand all this fuzz. I merely stated
some facts, and made an allusion to a simple observation I made once,
carrying my Leicas in one of the poorest countries in the world. Any
"normal", intelligent human being would have similar reactions under the
same circumstances. If not, the person in question would be blind, or callous.
It ended up in several threads ('black holes'?). So what? After all this is
a forum for discussion intended to be used by people who take photographs
with Leica and other rangefinder cameras. I could have written several pages
to counter all the casual remarks and emerging 'analyses', but I leave it.
It wouldn't change anything.
My initial remark is still valid, however. The Indian farmer would have to
work for ten years to earn what we paid for an M6, or rather twenty
years...an M6 with a 35mm Summicron lens will cost you more than $4.900 here
in France. This was just an example. The Indian farmer doesn't *need* this
'great tool' of course. The Indian farmer, together with the other three
quarter (3/4) of the humanity, living in miserable conditions, first of all
need justice, a more equitable distribution of the resources, a new,
adjusted international exchange system.
This is a fundamental part of my photographic *credo*. For me there is a
sharp distinction between shooting advertising pix, or other commercial
pictures, and making images for "Save the Children", Medecins sans
Frontieres", "Greenpeace" A/O. I never do mercantile work, and that is one
of the reasons why I am still a "starving" photographer. Not a complaining
one though, a fighting one... (#-;
Whether you need a Leica, or not, is more or less a personal question. But
Dan Cardish was right stating that "there are very few photographers (IMHO)
that require a Leica in order to practice their art at its fullest. By far
the majority could do very nicely with a much less expensive alternative." I
sold my Leicas in this state of mind. I didn't say that all of you should do
it!
(#-: O.
PS: What a 'wonderful analyse' JayPax@aol.com shared with us... As I have
said before, "The thing speaks for itself."
- ---
Oddmund Garvik - <garvik@i-t.fr>
Today's topic - International Appeals
http://www.vita.org/disaster/appeal/index.html