[Leica] Holy memory

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

>I do think there is something to this Leica "Glow" thing, in part based on
>Dermott seeing immediately on the light box something was different (the
>"Glow") [snip]
>Dermott has also said that with Leica lenses there really is a difference
>apart from every other brand he has ever printed.



True. They're better! <g>

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with good lenses. I love good lenses.
I love Leica lenses. Where I hop off the bandwagon is where someone OPINES
that 1) good photographs can't be taken with other makes of lenses (utter
nonsense) or b) that sharpness / resolution / lp/mm somehow helps a
photograph be good. What crap.

Hit the archives...look at lots of work...look at a thousand pictures from
50 years ago and tell me none of 'em look good. Some of 'em look WONDERFUL.

In fact, about the same percentage as if you look at a thousand pictures
today!

A couple of points pop to mind. First, Nancy Rexroth did a very fine book in
the '70s ('60s??) called _Iowa_ with a plastic toy camera that had a
single-element lens made of plastic. And some of the pictures were great,
and the book was great and so influential that a whole raftload of
photographers copied her and the others who were working with that toy
camera, and it got to be a fad. The fad is long gone now, but guess what? At
least a few of the photographers who tried the toy camera when it was a fad
_also_ took good pictures with it. I'm sorry my memory is so holy that I
don't remember more of their names offhand.

And I just dippped into my library and came across a wonderful book by a
photographer I don't know very much about, name of Eric Newby (maybe an
English Lugger can tell me more about him). The book is called _What the
Traveller Saw_. And it's an absolutely wonderful book, full of great
pictures. Most taken with an old Pentax and a budget 50mm lens. But taken by
a good PHOTOGRAPHER.

If you can't take a good picture with a bad lens, you can't take a good
picture with a good lens. The art is in using the tools artfully, not in the
tools themselves.

- --Mike