A room for everybody

[Oddmund Garvik <garvik@i-t.fr>]

One of my colleagues went to the USA some weeks ago to cover the
presidential election. At an election meeting Bill Clinton's press
officer said to the photographers: "Gentlemen, you shoot at 1/125,
aperture 5.6, focal length 85mm..." If you picked up a 28mm to make a
different photo, you were excluded. Simply like that.

The power of a photographer is found out of the field. The political
establishment in USA have very well understood this. I always find the
sense of my photos to the left or to the right of the subject (or what
is presented). If I am obliged to use a 85mm lens, I will make the same
photo as everybody else. This is not interesting at all.

There is parallel problem in some of the reactions upon some of my
messages to the Leica-users forum. I should make no further comments
upon this, but I find Roger L. Beamon's reactions extremely simple and
childish, not representative. 

As a reaction upon a sub-sentence in one of my mails, he says: "As a
western imperialist, I'm proud as hell of it, and take umbrage when
somebody has the temerity to initiate the subject, which, by the way,
has no place in this list either. When offended, I return the fire. It's
my style..." and so on. 

Roger L. Beamon is of course no imperialist. He is simply a "Naturalist
& Photographer, Docent:  Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Leica Historical
Society Of America", bla-bla, like I was a Social Anthropologist once
and others here may be Photographers, Engineers, Salesmen, unemployed or
whatever. I think all the members of the forum like the Leica and have a
common interest in photography. Roger L. Beamon has got his own ideas
like everybody else, and he is free to express them here.

Among others my Leicas opened my eyes and my mind. It is a very simple
camera to use and if you are a user, this is what counts. When I was 19
or 20 years old I learned the base of photography, technical solutions,
clues, how to use my M4 and so on. 

My cameras are tools. After all these years I know the Leica M in and
out. Technique is not important for me. A real Leica user is not sitting
cleaning, polishing and looking at his Leica, wondering if it can do
this or that. My Leicas always did what I wanted them to do. If the
result was bad or even a disaster sometimes, it was my own fault. I
don't like techno-freaks or collectors, especially not Leica collectors.
A Leica in a safe or in a showcase is a dead Leica. I find that very
sad. I don't like "leicaists", carrying around with their Leicas without
using them either. These "leicaists" who like to show their Leicas and
speak about them, because in certain places and under certain
circumstances, it gives *prestige*. This is another way of killing the
Leica.

I have very few Reference Books about Leica. I have a couple of old
German and French books, and then I bought the "75 Years of Leica
Photography". I don't have time to drown myself in technical details.
When I have time for it, I prefer going to galleries and exhibitions
looking at others pictures and visions or looking at photo books. 

November is a nice month for photographers in France. It is "Le Mois de
la Photo" with exhibitions, meetings and discussions about photography
all over the country. You can choose what you want. There is a room for
everybody. 

In this forum there should be a room for everybody as well. If you don't
like some of the threads here, just use the <Delete> button. All these
discussions are useful for many of us. Let the few narrow-minded who
don't feel comfortable with this, do what they want. Let this forum be a
free space, where Leica people from all over the world can exchange
ideas and opinions about Leica and photography.       

Oddmund

PS: I am not a "post-modernist" and I don't consider photography as an
art (someone mentioned this).