Re: Shutterbabe Re: [Leica] Curiosity on Magnum

["Dragi Anevski" <dragia@hotmail.com>]

Hi B.D.
I agree that it is the their work that is important. So how come some of 
them use Leicas? Does it show in their work? And how do they capture those 
moments? I think these are interesting questions and in my personal and 
naive opinion also maybe as interesting as whether WE think that certain 
lenses are sharper than others. So what do THEY think? Why do they choose a 
Leica to such a high degree?

Lets compare with the "normal" equipment for a photo journalist. You don't 
see that many carrying a Leica on say a press conference on TV. But a lot of 
the Magnum people do exactly that. Maybe they do a different kind of 
photography for which the Leica is more suited? I don't know. I'd love to 
hear others opinions on that.

One of my friends works as a freelance for a newspaper in Sweden. I can see 
a change in his pictures from when he started, where he only used a Leica 
M4P with one lens (35 Summicron), and now he uses a Nikon F100 with wide 
angles and very rarely takes out his Leica. And I think I can say that his 
older pictures are perhaps more contemplative, to use a word for lack of 
better. He used to say that he used the Nikon for the photojournalist things 
and the Leica for his personal. That's changed now to just the Nikon, and 
now he likes that camera more. I'm not saying his pictures are better or 
worse, but I think they are different. I don't know if that's because he has 
changed or his cameras.

I'd love to see a discussion on say what makes Salgado use an R6 to shoot 
his pictures. By the way I saw the Workers exhibition in Stockholm some 
years ago, and I still remember how it felt to stand in front of one of his 
huge charcoal-like prints for several minutes and just be overwhelmed by it, 
and then go on to the next and next... And I know that Salgado has left 
Magnum, which I believe was due to controvercies on whether his photos were 
PC or not, the argument was they didn't show the poor as victims but as 
strong and proud people, that he glorified manual work which you shouldn't.

Or say Larry Towell, who I believe, does everything with a Leica and a 28. 
Does it show in his work?

Or take a non-Magnum photographer like William Klein, who I believe just 
uses M and 21mm. Could he have taken those pictures with another camera and 
lens? I know he started when there was no other option but there are other 
options now... I also know that he has done a lof of films and commercials, 
but I beleive he used the Leica for his photography.

I don't know what Koudelka uses, I know that he did panorama view photos 
with something that obviously couldn't be a Leica. Did he use a Leica for 
his pictures of the invasion of the Soviet Union in Prag?



I'd love to hear your (and others) opinions on it.

Dragi Anevski


>From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>

>Hi, Jerry - Sorry to have been a bit "harsh," which, unfortunately, is
>my way...I won't get into the myth of "shutter babe" but would recommend
>that perhaps you read "My War Gone By, I Miss It So," by Anthony Loyd
>(cq) as an antidote...
>
>But as to the question -  and my response - in general...Sure, we can
>talk here about who uses Leicas etc. etc., but I don't see the point -
>unless what we're doing is talking about their work, and why they might
>use rangefinder equipment, rather than, or in addition to, the more
>common reflex equipment. Unless you are talking about people shooting
>prior to the mid 1960s, the question of whether their rangefinders are
>Leicas is pretty irrelevant



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