RE: [Leica] Living with a D!X, picking pockets with an M

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

I have to strenuously disagree with you, Peter. Based on my experience it is
indeed possible to be unobtrusive and blend into the background - and it is
far easier to do that with a small camera, rather than a large one. Get
close to someone with an M with a 21, and if you have been hanging around
for a while, they will probably ignore you. Stick an F5 with a 17-35 zoom in
their face and they CAN'T ignore you.

B. D.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of pmjensen
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 8:43 PM
To: leica users
Subject: [Leica] Living with a D!X, picking pockets with an M


>In a way what you're saying about working
>with the D1X and with Ms could be said about working with any autofocus
>modern reflex camera and working with Ms - if you want to be unobtrusive,
>you can't shove an F100, F5, EOS1n, etc. - or a D1X - in someone's face.
>Once again, it's not a matter of brand, film v digital, etc., it's a matter
>of the right tool for the right job.

I'd like to offer a counter line of thought on this by twisting it
around. I don't think that you can be unobtrusive under any circumstances
while holding a camera, of any type, in someone's face, even in a crowd.
And, to that extent, it doesn't matter what type or size of camera you're
using. My experience is that the larger and more obviously
professionally-sized cameras reassure by virtue of their obvious function
(and, by extension, the photographer's function or place in the social
order). The Ms, by contrast and by looking insignificant, call into
question why the photographer's broken the social contract and moved in
so very close: is he going to pick my pocket (or some more amorphous
fear)? What's he doing, what's his purpose here?

That's my projection, of course - no real way to tell the truth.

Instead of trying to be invisible, which comes off looking questionable,
it might work better to be so persistently present that people eventually
get bored and lose interest in your workings - then the interesting stuff
can happen, and that's when the Ms gain the upper hand: by not constantly
(re-)calling attention to their mirrors, shutters, motors.... But there's
so much cultural stuff at work here, too: New Yorkers are far more
tolerant of personal-space intrusion than, well, just about everyone
else, as a for-instance.

[Slight digression. This whole topic presupposes wide angle lenses, I
guess. It amazes me (in a good way) that some photographers are able to
make such complicated, interesting images, spatially complex in two and
three dimensions, with normal and longer lenses. Now recovering after
years of being paid to please graphic designers, I've got a terrible
personal aversion to anything that flattens the picture plane.
Kon-see-kwentlee, I'm in everyone's face, all the time.]

At least that's my experience. In any case, I agree, >>it's a matter of
the right tool for the right job.<< Thanks alot.

- ---Peter



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