Re: [Leica] Winogrand/blind shooting

[Bruce Feldman <feldman@tuj.ac.jp>]

OK Ted,

So real men don't shoot "blind."  And can we not add that to the list that
includes "real men don't crop," "real men don't use auto-anything,"
etc.?  I, myself, the guy who started this beehive, have been guilty in a
recent post to this list of promoting the notion that real men don't use
in-camera meters!

But I would maintain that even when we use our eye what we really use is
our "mind's" eye.  When we become good with our Leica Ms, we use the
viewfinder for less and less.  We pre0-focus by feel, set the exposure by
feel, and, yes, frame in our mind.  We hold the camera to our eye for a
second to confirm what we've already done mentally and fire away.  Indeed,
isn't this one of the attractions of the M system -- the fact that it
becomes so much like anothyer arm that it isn't necessary toregard it as
an alien object that requires attention?  The question is whether it isn't
possible or desirable, at least sometimes, to take the next step and shoot
without checking the viewfinder.

I rode the crowded, confined Tokyo subways virtually every day for two
years and I found the same thing that Walker Evans found decades before on
the NYC subway -- that the only way to get anything good and not rape --
or *sometimes* "contaminate" -- the subject is to use a hidden camera or
to shoot blind with a visible one.  Therefore, I had to try to develop a
sixth sense of being able to previsualize this type of shot.  I am still
not good at it; nonetheless, like a golfer who makes a hole-in-one, I have
my moments and I take credit for them.  But if at all possible, I'll risk
embarassment, if not life or limb, to check things out in the finder. 

Regards,

Bruce Feldman


On Wed, 17 Dec 1997, ted grant wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> I've seen photographers do this "blind shooting" and always wondered what
> the hell they are doing...shooting wild like that? 
> 
> As it seems there are a number of "renowned photographers" who shoot in
> this fashion, I thought I'd give it a go.:)
> 
> Well either I'm blind in both eyes or there are a bunch of people who 
> don't have the guts to hold the camera to their eye, focus and shoot the
> subject properly framed and composed.
> 
> I shot a pile of rolls strolling around and plinking here and there at
> things I thought, "geez look at that!"  click, "throw that one away after
> development. When I knew damn well, if I'd have shot like a "real
> photographer" putting the camera at my eye, I'd have had one hell of a good
> photograph. 
> 
> Either shooting wildly at the world is a very special technique with a ten
> million dollar amount of BS luck, or I'm the stupidest Leica photographer
> around.
> 
> Roll after roll just went into file 13 (garbage) as there wasn't anything
> but weird angles of the kind that for years I've concluded shot by gutless
> photographers afraid to face the subject quickly, quietly and unobserved. 
> Remeber we are talking about using "near silent" M cameras!
> 
> You see, I think any idiot can walk around with a 28mm lens set at f22 and
> never look through the view finder and get a great collection of weird
> angled pictures that are virtually meaningless, unless some wordsmith puts
> sweet talking words to them saying how great they are. Which in turn makes
> a lot of photographers believe "hey if it's good for Willy Wonkie to shoot
> like that and get books published, I guess I better start shooting in that
> fashion also."  Wrong!!!!!!!!
> 
> Quite frankly, to hell with this shooting blindly stuff! If you don't have
> the balls to put the camera to your eye and shoot, "learn how!"
> 
> Jeeeeeesh, I know I'm in trouble again! :) oh well what the hell, I'm
> sounding like an old grouch this morning.:) Merry Christmas everyone! :)
> 
> ted
>