[Leica] "On sale"

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

Since it's Friday--

My most recent essay has just been published in _DMax_, the newsletter
of The View Camera Store out in Arizona. The essay is called
"Photographers and Honesty." The newsletter also contains an article by
Phil Davis on Ilford's new DDX film developer. I believe you can get a
copy of the newsletter  (or at least inquire as to how to get it) from

www.viewcamerastore.com.

The essay pertains equally to all kinds of photography, not specifically
view camera photography.

Also, in the next issue of _PHOTO Techniques_ (www.phototechmag.com), my
work is for sale for the "Collector's Print Offer." The issue will be
published in three weeks.

In the write-up, the Marketing Department said, "_PT_ Editor Michael
Johnston is on the hot seat! He spends all day evaluating the work of
other photographers; now you get a chance to see for yourself how good a
'photo-technician' _he_ is...."

Not the way I would have written it, but fair enough.

The ad also mentions that all of the photos were taken with "Leitz or
Zeiss lenses," and comes with an unpublished essay entitled "The Beauty
of the Lens Image." So it doesn't drive you nuts, photo A., "The Mouth
of the Chicago River," was taken with the re-coated collapsible 50mm
Summicron-M that Jim Lager sold me. To me, this picture embodies the
best of what great lenses are all about. All three of the other pictures
were taken with Zeiss lenses, and you have my blessing if you want to
ignore them completely. <g>

All the pictures are $60 each, in keeping with our basic concept, which
is to allow people to collect excellent technical examples of various
kinds of original photography for as little money as possible. (We've
offered Cibachromes, dye transfers, black-and-white digital inkjet
prints made from Hasselblad negatives, and unsharp-masked large-format
prints, among other things, for far less than you could buy them for
from any other source--in the case of the dyes, they were a lot cheaper
than it would cost just to have one of your _own_ negatives or slides
printed as a dye).

I suppose, to be consistent, I should have charged $90 for the Leica
print and $60 for the other three *, but no, they're all the same price.
<s>

- --Mike

* This is a joke, please don't kill me....