[Leica] thus sayith the shutterbabe (inre leicas)

[Kyle Cassidy <cassidy@netaxs.com>]

from "shutterbabe":

I became a photojournalist during the late 80's, the last days of the
manual camera ... having a nikon f2, f3 or fm2 signified both a technical
proficiency with manual cameras as well as a seriousness and commitment to
photojournalism. Even cooler was a black nikon cmaera body with a few
well-placed dents and screatches on it. It ssaid to the others, I'm a
rugged person ... I did have that Leica, however. It was an M6, the kind
with the built-in light meter. Owning a Leica M-series camera put you in a
whole other league. The Leica was the Porsche of the camera world; it was
small, light, exquisitely crafted, mechanically perfect and very, very
expensive. It was the "it" camera for the "concerned" photographer -- a
loose definition for a photographer who cares deeply about his subjects,
who spends years and years shooting a single, thematicallly unified story
on subjects like prisions, sweatshops or anything remotely related to
Ethopia. With a Leica slung casually over your shoulder -- always with the
lens facing in toward your rib cage to protect it, otherwise you'd be
pegged immediately as an amateur -- you could always pretend to be a
concerned photographer, whether or not you'd ever stepped foot in Ethopia.