Re: M6 Dilemma

[pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)]

Recently there have been some messages on the LUG list comparing
Leicas and Nikons.  And, predictably, there have been replies from
people who say that a camera is just a tool.  You also see this
exchange all the time on the rec.photo groups, where some people get
into brand wars, others talk about the special qualities of Leicas,
and the moral high ground is usually assumed by the people who say
that because they are real artists they understand that a camera is
just a tool, a means to an end, a utilitarian object to be judged
purely on whether it provides the largest number of features for the
least money.  But the "a-camera-is-just-a-tool" people seem to me to
suffer from a kind of aesthetic impairment.

Sure, a camera is just a tool.  And a house is just a building.  But
some houses are graceful and beautiful and comfortable and some are
not; and for me personally this does not have a great deal to do with
whether they have some particular list of modern conveniences or some
particular number of bedrooms, but with something else entirely, a
kind of aesthetic of design and depth of feeling.  A Leica M3 is an
artifact whose designers clearly felt strongly about what they were
creating, and it is beautiful because of the clarity of their vision
and the purposefulness that the object embodies.

I sympathize with anyone who wants to stop people from getting into
brand wars -- brand wars are mostly a very strange sort of instinctual
dominance ritual in which men beat their chests at each other and huff
and puff about their brand.  What is astonishing about these rituals
is how very basic they are and how very little is communicated in
them.  They are tiresome and stupid and I don't want to see them,
either.

But I think it's also a mistake to ignore the very real differences
between objects created by different groups of people with different
sensibilities and purposes.  It's even disrespectful -- for some of
these people, this was their life's work, and the fact that they were
engineers building tools doesn't mean that they didn't feel as deeply
about their creations as a photographer does about his or her
photographs.  If you like holding a Leica M camera, if it makes you
happy when you use it, if it feels good and works well and sounds
solid and looks good, then you can feel the purpose and dedication and
love those people put into their work, and you shouldn't be ashamed of
it.  Engineers can create beauty, too.

- -Patrick (who also builds tools)