Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Le Mer, 18 Avr 2001 20:16:55 -0700 (PDT) Ray Moth <ray_moth@yahoo.com> a écrit: > He holds the world record for the greatest number of unanswered > "welcome back" messages ;-) Hello gentlemen! I am sorry about that... I subscribed and the day after my computer?s power supply fan stopped. It took me some days to get another one and replace it. I am still living at this french countryside that I like so much, far away from noisy cities and towns, out of time. The only thing is that you need to be patient when something goes wrong. Anyway, I am here, and I wish to thank you for all the nice welcome back messages. I can see that the LUG hasn't changed much, but then the Leicas doesn't change much either. I still have a couple of M's and some lenses, but I've got rid of the other things (a part from a T2 which I still like). I suppose I am still qualified for the list. There are not much to talk about though. I haven't been away for almost a year, so the cameras tend to take dust. I experimented with a 4"x5" pinhole camera and made some nice platinum prints, but finally scenery and still life is not for me. I prefer human photography. Then I am drawing more and more. Paper and pencils are amazing and simple tools - and cheap...! Even China ink. If I have been busy with other activities than photography this winter, I still have some photo projects. When spring comes, the "fever" comes with it. Last time I went to Mali and Burkina Faso. Next time I should like to go back to Lebanon once again. I haven't been there for a long time now and things must have changed. I suppose it is rather quiet, apart from the southern border of course. The power in Jerusalem still thinks they have the right to attack the northern neighbour when it is suitable, and I still remember Sharon's military "adventure" last time, almost twenty years ago. But I don't run after wars anymore. I like it more quiet. It is still interesting to go back to the old places. With the years you get the same relationship to places as to books - you return to the same over and over again. I suppose it is the same with Leicas. There are so much rubbish and so many lies in the world, so much hypocrisy and mediocrity. You have no choice, but to defend the few valuable things that are left. Democracy is gone, the oceans are full of waste and the atmosphere is glowing of radioactivity and greenhouse gases. International agreements come and go, while the "politicians" continue eating cakes and dancing as if everything was in order. The orchestra is like the one on "Titanic". It never stops. Just a few bothers about what is going on outside. I always considered the Leica as a weapon in the struggle for a better world, nothing more, nothing less. It is probably becoming less a weapon now as the image pollution drowns or hides the pearls. But you don't change because you are used to this camera and this way of working. You make images of human dignity where it is supposed not to be, you write, you talk, you walk in the streets with thousands and thousands from time to time, even if you have lived half a century already and are supposed to shut up and keep quiet. Or perhaps it is because of that. You have a perspective that hasn't faded too much. You are a rebel, a resistant. You haven't changed. Voilà, I am back... Oddmund ______________________________________________________________________________ ifrance.com, l'email gratuit le plus complet de l'Internet ! vos emails depuis un navigateur, en POP3, sur Minitel, sur le WAP... http://www.ifrance.com/_reloc/email.emailif