Re: [Leica] What has Leica done to my life?

["Bruce R. Slomovitz" <brslomo@erols.com>]

Alex,

Thanks to you for writing.  Very nicely done.

Bruce S.
- -----Original Message-----
From: Alex Brattell <alex@zetetic.co.uk>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Saturday, August 22, 1998 2:04 PM
Subject: [Leica] What has Leica done to my life?


>
>Here's a long post. I was in a typing mood, feel free to delete.
>
>I've been a Leica user and Lugger for about 6 months now so I thought it
was
>about time I contributed properly after having received so much help and
>learnt so much here.
>
>I'm  36 (already), live in London (East), and despite hypocritical
ramblings
>about non materialism I find myself surrounded by books, vinyl records and
>photography related junk/treasure.
>
>My work is basically divided into 3 types - 'Personal' work, 99 percent
>monochrome, gets sent to a stock library, occasionally exhibited, sporadic
>print sales. Many abstracts, simulacra, 'Geni Locii', landscapes of various
>descriptions. A search for the miraculous, for archetypes and 'shapes of
>thought'. Then I do general commercial work, from shoes to portraits to
>interiors to food etc. Half studio, half location, mostly colour of course.
>Quite a lot of music related photography. About half is editorial work. I
>don't do sport (poker is the only sport I play!) and not so much fashion
(an
>exception is cover and 6 pages of the current edition of Skin Two - UK
>glossy fetish and rubberwear fashion mag. See
>http://www.skintwo.co.uk/index3.html). I also teach for one or two days a
>week at an art college. I carry a camera every day, usually a 50mm or 35mm
>and BW neg. If I'm only carrying one lens I'll change the one I carry every
>few weeks, I find it wakes my eye up a little bit.
>
>My interest in cameras by far post dates my interest in photography. My
>first fancy camera was a Pentax LX, bought when I was 20 in 1981. It felt
>right in my hands (the Olympus was too small, the Canon too big), didn't
>scare me with digital readouts (like the Nikon F3 that seems so quiet
>nowadays) and wasn't too dependent on batteries. It never let me down.
>Later, I was employed as a photographer and used the firm's
>Nikon/Hasselblad/Cambo/Bowens gear, only really taking an interest in the
>equipment when I started to equip myself for working alone.
>
>Simplicity in technology pleases me - automation dilutes intent more often
>than not. I don't have a teasmade, camcorder, piles of remote controls or
>anything autofocus. I suppose I've always been more interested in
>specifications and design than features. I studied digital imaging for a
>year and loved it, but it's unintended effect was to make me really
>appreciate monochrome photography again, and the unique nature of 'classic'
>lens and film combinations. In 1997 I was getting interested in
Rolleiflexes
>- the father of a childhood friend used one in his job as a commercial
>artist and I'd always remembered it. Then I read that the British fashion
>photographer Terence Donovan had committed suicide. I was really struck by
>this tragedy; he had achieved many things to which I aspire, and even had a
>'life' as well! When his equipment was auctioned off at Christies I got a
>catalogue and was fascinated by his collection. 'How could one guy ever use
>so many cameras?'. It slowly dawned on me that I was missing the point, and
>saw the fascination with the range of ingenuity and motive distilled into
>camera mechanisms and lenses. I'd come across a branch of photographic
>culture in which I was severely underdeveloped, and it was fascinating! (I
>ended up buying a load of his lighting equipment). Maybe an interest in
>cameras inevitably leads to the Leica.
>
>After 6 months of using a Leica M6, the daily cost of ownership continues
to
>fall and the rewards mount up. What made me spend the equivalent of a very
>long beach holiday on such a lovely pile of precision jewellery and what am
>I getting out of it?
>
>I'd always thought that Leicas were old fashioned, for collectors and much
>too expensive.
>Then they came down in price a bit (in the UK at least), and started to
>really stand out as mechanical cameras in a world of plastic. I read in an
>article in the BJP that the printer Larry Bartlett once said that he could
>always tell a negative made with a Leica because of the quality of the
>shadow areas. The more I learnt about rangefinders, the more intrigued I
>became. When I first handled the M6 it was instantly apparent why this is
>type of camera has been so important in the evolution of photography.
>Hooked! Curses!
>
>The things I like about the Leica M have all been stated often before by
>others and I can only agree - composing in a viewfinder as opposed to the
>glass screen of an SLR has a wonderful immediacy. Seeing outside the
>framelines is great. Rangefinder focusing based on difference not
resolution
>is excellent. Not having the camera right in front of the face is important
>(I'm right eyed but left handed). A quiet camera is a must. So far for me
it
>is the perfect camera, its limitations are to be accepted gracefully as
they
>all confer advantages (no switches, simple readout etc). Before I bought
the
>M6 Nigel Skelsey, picture editor of the Sunday Telegraph offered,
amazingly,
>to lend me his and said that he loved the camera but you get more on the
>negative than in the viewfinder and so have to move closer (this is also an
>advantage - the Leica draws you into something rather than encouraging you
>to stand back). He also said that the camera makes the most lovely blurs
and
>I totally agree - it is fantastic at low shutter speeds for a feeling of
>time and movement as well as capable of such good resolution. I don't know
>why the good blurring, but I suppose that if they change the shutter on a
>new M this could be affected.
>
>I have bored my girlfriend silly about my journey to Planet Leica. She says
>she loves my enthusiasm and doesn't complain about that extra trip
somewhere
>we could have had (what, go away without the Leica - unthinkable!) which
>makes me love her even more, so I suppose Leica has been good for my love
life.
>One of my justifications for buying such an expensive camera was that I
>hadn't ever lost a camera except in a burglary, I'd been in dodgy places,
>demonstrations, bad weather, dead drunk, so why not carry a Leica every
day?
>So of course the first time I take it travelling it gets stolen (in Mexico
>City). I was insured and couldn't wait to replace it, I felt that I was
only
>beginning to get the hang of it. Ouch, that hurt. If anyone tries to take
my
>second Leica, I'll beat their brains out with it, at least until the
>accidental damage cover expires - after that I'll just run like crazy.
>
>It'll take a year to get used to this camera, and 50 more to really get
good
>on. Seeing is so damn difficult!
>My technique is challenged by optics worth learning to use properly, and my
>work is changing as a direct result of the Leica. It's quietness gives me
>confidence photographing people without being noticed, and my attitude to
my
>darkroom technique is shaken and stirred. An awful habit I had - to expose
>for the shadows (BW neg) and develop for them too because I didn't really
>trust the lens' shadow rendering and so compress highlights (I was
>photo-bulimic - I knew I was doing it but just couldn't help myself!) - it
>isn't happening with the M6 as the meter is more sharply defined and the
>shadow rendering IS excellent.
>I've used up a lot of film trying it out, just for the pleasure of using it
>- most of this 'playfilm' is dreary rubbish - but there are a couple of
nice
>pictures that otherwise wouldn't have been made, as well as some 'document'
>pictures which could take on a certain interest with age.
>
>Has the camera attracted attention? I recently photographed a small music
>festival at General Pitt Rivers' (of Ethnography fame) exquisite Victorian
>pleasure garden in Wiltshire. Someone I hadn't seen for a while (not a
>photographer) exclaimed loudly 'WOW is that a Leica?' which made me cringe
>and say something about 'just an old make of German camera.' A Japanese TV
>cameraman looked at it and nodded knowingly - if anyone else has noticed
>they haven't commented. In Mexico it was fine, really enjoyed the low noise
>and it blended in, chrome and all, just another tourist's little box. Same,
>of course, in UK.
>
>I'm now on the verge of buying another M body which I hadn't originally
>intended, the Leica was going to be a 'personal' camera. The 2nd body is
for
>jobs so I'm not always taking out and replacing half used film and I get to
>use those expensive lenses more, and for travel (backup and 2 different
>types of film). Beyond this the aim is not to own any more Leica gear (Did
I
>hear howls of laughter??). There is a fascination of The Wanderer inherent
>in this elite miniature equipment, I'd like to keep this alive by not
owning
>any more Leica equipment than I can carry at any one time. (I suppose, like
>Hercules and the calf, I'll just have to get stronger!).
>
>I'll post another progress report in another six months, or even better,
buy
>the new Nikon neg scanner in the Autumn and put together a web site after 2
>years of talking about it.
>
>Thanks for reading
>
>Alex
>