Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Vermont People, my first photo book, photographed between 1960 and 1998, was mostly shot with a 6x7 Pentax and 6x9 Plaubel Veriwide. I can recall about four Leica photos. People of the Great Plains, photographed between 1993 and 1995, was a mix of 6x6 Mamiya rangefinder and 6x17 Fuji. The reason for the larger format was more detail in the faces and of course the panoramic was the only way to capture the expanse of the Plains. There were also about four Leica photos in the book. The M6 was usually fitted with a 21mm and I used it for grab shots. I sold the Mamiya after the project as I needed the money and I didn't really like the square format. The First Time I Saw Paris photographs , taken in the mid-fifties, were taken with a Leica and a Rolleiflex. The book was published in 1998. Looking through these books, which are all black and white, I found the photographs with the most intimacy and revelation were captured by the Leica. The camera is non-intrusive and so quick to use and you can take a close-range portrait and not scare the subject to death, as you do with the Pentax 6x7 or the Nikon F5 (just sold that camera. Too damned big, expensive and complicated. I am now doing a book on Vermont Farm Women. I do one portrait with the 6x7 or 6x9 Plaubel. I do one panoramic with the 6x17. The rest are with the Leica. The photographs with the most emotion so far have been with the M6. Some of the 6x7 portraits are strong but they are more formal. I have another project I call Robert Frost's Vermont. I read his poems and then go out and shoot them. So far all but one or two were shot with the Leica. I picked the Leica because it more often than not produces photographs that are personal and intimate. There's more poetry in that camera. I would say the best photographs I take, as far as content and response, are with the Leica. I started with Leica, moved away, and now am moving back. Yet I have another project to do that mixes color and black and white. The color will be shot with 6x7 and 6x17. The portraits will be black and white and now I am wondering whether I will shoot the portraits with 35mm, for the intimate look, or a larger format, say the 5x7, for a formal response. The book is a perspective of Vermont land and the people who care for it. It is history and the larger format may be the best way to go. If I had only one camera, it would be the Leica. - -- Vermont People, People of the Great Plains, and The First Time I Saw Paris, books by Peter Miller, can be viewed at http://www.silverprintpress.com. Peter Miller's stock photography can be searched at http://www.yankeeimage.com.