Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/04

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Subject: Re: [Leica] lower class pros using leicas?
From: Tarek Charara <tarek.charara@wanadoo.fr>
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 17:26:18 +0200

le 04.09.2001 16:23, Paul Chefurka à Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com a écrit :

>> From: Tarek Charara [mailto:tarek.charara@wanadoo.fr]
>> 
>> le 04.09.2001 11:07, Mxsmanic à mxsmanic@hotmail.com a écrit :
>> 
>>> Tarek writes:
>>> 
>>>> You earn your living with photography and
>>>> you can prove it.
>>> 
>>> That does not answer my question.  What constitutes earning
>> one's living with
>>> photography, and what proof does Leica require?
>> 
>> Are you really stupid or are you just pretending?
>> 
>> Tarek
> 
> Actually, he's neither stupid nor pretending.  It's a legit question - what
> are Leica's criteria for "earning one's living with photography"?  51% of all
> taxable income pre year?  90%?  100%?  49%?  10%?  Some absolute dollar
> amount?  And how do they ask one to substantiate this?  Is there a sliding
> window of time over which the qualifications are applied?
> 
> I don't mean to restart the tired discussion about "what's a pro?", but it
> would be interesting to know how Leica qualifies those who take advantage of
> whatever pro services they offer.  The certainly don't want rabble like me
> clogging their channels, so how do they keep me out if I were to shoot a dozen
> very lucrative contracts in a year in addition to working as a contract
> software designer?  Say my income from photography exceeds the average income
> for a nominal "professional photographer" but I make three times that from my
> software business.  Do they exclude me, while including another photographer
> who makes less from their photography than I do, but has no additional source
> of income?
> 
> I think the answers to these questions would provide some very interesting
> insight into how Leica views professional photographers.  A comparison to
> Canon and Nikon's qualification procedures would be even more enlightening.
> Anyone have any information on this?
> 
> Paul

Actually what bothers me is that Anthony could have picked up the phone and
asked Leica directly. So here is the answer directly from Leica: Is
considered a professional anyone who makes a living out of photography,
independant of income. Actually they don't ask for proof of income, but for
proof of publication, exhibition, work, etc.
You could also send your press card # or your AGESSA # (AGESSA is the
"social security" for authors)
Voilà. Concerning difference of service compared to N***n or the other
brand. Leica France had a loan stock, but they abandoned it due to abuse
(people considering it to be a "free-of-charge-rental").

T.

Replies: Reply from "Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic@hotmail.com> (Re: [Leica] lower class pros using leicas?)