[Leica] Japan photographs

[Peter Klein <pklein@2alpha.net>]

At 06:03 AM 1/18/04 -0800, Karen Nakamura <mail@gpsy.com> wrote:

>I spent 6 weeks in Japan with my Leica M7,
>Nikon S2, and Canon EOS-3 taking photographs of people working in various 
>situations.
>http://photoethnography.com/gallery/japan2003/index.html

Karen:  These are wonderful!  What an antidote to the usual cliches of 
neon, businessmen packed into the subway car, people-as-ants on the 
streets, and such.  It's especially well-timed for me, as I just saw "Lost 
In Translation" a few days ago.  That was "Japan as another planet," yours 
was "Japan is different, but people are people."  Nice going!  (And I 
*liked* the earlier geisha girls on cell phones).

This may sound strange, but some of the "mom and pop" store pictures 
reminded me of childhood visits to my grandparents in the Bronx, NY city, 
would go shopping with them to all the little independent Jewish food 
stores in the neighborhood.   Half a world and two or three generations 
removed, something about the aura your Japanese shopkeepers project is very 
similar to those past memories.

>I'll be in Japan again this summer, this time for 10 months. My
>research this time will be on disability and education.

Did you mean 10 months as in sabbatical, or 10 weeks as in summer break?

Congratulations on the S2!  The quality of the Nikkor 50/1.4 is very 
nice--as you say, a bit retro, but for some subjects, just what's 
needed.  Here's some I took with mine:
http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/claire_surreal.htm
http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/paula_harpo.htm
http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/temp/marianne.jpg

I eventually sold my LTM version to help finance some Leica stuff, but I 
hope to get similar quality out of the Jupiter-8 I just inherited, once it 
comes back from Oleg.

But *do* stay away from the SP--that could end up a more expensive habit 
than Leica!

- --Peter Klein
Seattle, WA


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