[Leica] Why a 35mm?

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

on 11/7/00 10:34 PM, Leica Users digest at
owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us wrote:

> The most eloquent argument for the 35 mm lens can be found in the
> photographs of the people use use it as their main tool. A great many of the
> photographs in National Geographic, for example, are made with the 35mm (and
> the 28mm) lens.
> 
> For a different style, you might look at the work of Lee Freidlander, who
> used wide angle lenses mounted on a Leica M body for most of his career.
> Anyway, here's why I like the 35mm the best:
> 
> It's practical. Wide enough for landscapes, narrow enough for people.
> Generally, through, I like to combine the two and present people in context.
> 
> I still try to fill the frame with the 35mm. (I like to think of it as
> "finishing off the edges.") Instead of filling the frame with the subject, I
> think it's an interesting challenge to include other forms that intensify
> the meaning of the picture. A close-up of an old man in the park is good. An
> old man in the park with some kids playing in the background might be even
> better. The kids can provide visual balance and add meaning - one generation
> replacing another and all that. National Geographic is full of pictures that
> work in this manner. So is Friedlander's work. A good example is
> Friedlander's photo of a "girl's wanted" sign in the right half of the frame
> while, way up in the left hand corner, the feet of two women are coming into
> the frame. Looks like it was done with a 28mm. Without those feet way off on
> the other side, you don't have a picture. You just can't pull that kind of
> thing off with a portrait length lens. A kid dressed as a hobo for Halloween
> is a nice picture. A kid dressed as a hobo for Halloween with a homeless
> person pushing a cart off in the background might be a great picture. When
> you see this kind of moment coming together, a 35mm is handy for getting it.
> 
> 
> I find that it's easier for me to get acceptable pictures with my 90m
> Summicron. It's a lot harder to find a meaningful order for all the visual
> information that a 35mm or 28mm takes bring to the eye. Often, the lens will
> include forms that distract from the main subject, rather than to reinforce
> it. That's the big challenge - learning to see and bring order to the
> complex visual world out there. (Hmmm...this sounds as if I wrote it with
> the help of that well-known operating system "Soapbox 98.")



Oh no, don't demean what you've said! What you're saying makes great sense
and it's a tough subject to articulate. Nice job.

- --Mike