Re: [Leica] Pros

[Gary Elshaw <gary.elshaw@vuw.ac.nz>]

Mark raised some interesting points about "professionalism" which 
reminded me of an article i saved last year after someone here posted 
it. If others haven't read it, it's an excellent article from Bill 
Pierce about the differences between shooting with an M and an SLR.

http://dirckhalstead.org/issue9801/nutsandbolts9801.htm

It's also well worth checking out this month's issue of Dirck 
Halstead's magazine which features an article and photographs of 
Harvey's Cuba book that was shot with a 35, sometimes a 50, on a 
Leica M.

Oh, and Pierce has some more thoughts about Harvey and the Leica 
entitled "Less equipment, more freedom"

http://dirckhalstead.org/issue9910/nutsandbolts.htm

All the best,
Gary





At 4:37 PM -0800 16/11/99, Mark wrote:
>Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 11:55:22 -0800
>From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
>Subject: Re: [Leica] Pros
>
>  ><Snip>
>  > It may be a troll, Mark, but it's a bullseye as well. The Leica M is the
>  > ultimate pro camera that is used more by "non-pros" than by pros, because
>  > the majorit of today's pros have been forced by the demands of 
>their jobs to
>  > use autoeverything cameras.
>  >
>  > B. D.
>
>Any camera with a possible exception of a Sinar P has a thousand non 
>pros using
>it for every pro.
>
>It hasn't been established that Leica has lost market share with pros over the
>past autoeverything decade.
>If it is true that Leica has lost market share to pro's which I 
>doubt I doubt is
>it because the demands of their jobs required autoeverything cameras.
>Talk to ten pros. How many of them have skate boarders rushing at them at a
>million miles an hour with the light changing?
>We've been though this before but...
>	...and therefore feel they really need and do really need the 
>modern automation.
>I suggest such fast breaking photography is not typical to most pros work and
>that they know it.
>But the modern cameras are just to wonderful to pass up. They may not care. I
>used them for a few years and I feel I mastered them.
>
>I say to the doubters, shoot with an M6 for a week or two and you'll find out
>why there is a long list of top pros who have that camera as their 
>favored one.
>You want to tell these greats who we all know that their camera is 
>not a pro camera!
>They will show you their ledger and their photos and look whimsical.
>And there are less dramatic examples of pros who always have an M6 around even
>if it's not their main camera but wouldn't dream of leaving it at 
>home. Lots of
>photogs are in that category.
>The M6 remains the most desired and respected and used cameras among 
>other than dilettantes.
>
>I had doubts in the beginning as was only going to use mine for my personal
>work. What initially helped change it first and most was a current 
>shot of a war
>photographer with a slew of M6's slung all around him. He had just 
>been in a war
>was dodging bullets, diving in trenches and had brought back the 
>shots as always
>with his Leica M6's.
>Covered with dust and dirt and Leicas he looked serious,
>and professional.
>Mark Rabiner

"The difficulty now is that unexceptional adults believe the loss of 
youthful dreaming is itself "growing up," as though adulthood were 
the passive conclusion to a doomed activity and hope during 
adolescence."


OO             The Uses of Disorder
[_]<|          Personal Identity and City Life -- Richard Sennett
  /|\
Gary Elshaw
Post-Grad Film Student
Victoria University
New Zealand
http://elshaw.tripod.com/