[Leica] What we use Leicas for (long)

["Simon Pulman-Jones" <spulmanjones@lbs.ac.uk>]

Since I've worried away here for the last couple of days about lens choice
for low-light shooting, I thought I really ought to give a brief description
of what I use photography for. I suppose you might say that the LUG has a
wide range of different types of photographer, from the professionals, to
the collectors, to the family-snappers - and a hundred other categories that
you could dream up. It's amazing that we have such coherent discussions - or
maybe not, because none of us really falls into just one of these
categories - and most of us have a whole range of attitudes to and uses for
photography - even just when we're discussing low-light shooting this ranges
from Ted's wonderful pictures of doctors at work to Paul Bolam's attempts to
keep a good hold on a Noctilux as the pints go down in the pub.

My thoughts about a new lens for low-light shooting are mainly to do with my
work. I am a social anthropologist and most of what I do involves spending
large amounts of time (i.e. a year or so) researching people's lives in
places that have ranged from Britain's smallest school in the Orkney islands
in Scotland, to a special psychiatric unit for the treatment of children who
have chronic emotional and behavioural problems. At the moment I am working
with fifteen households in London looking at how the information age is
affecting their lives. When I am with the people that I will eventually be
writing about it is usually as a participant rather than an outside
observer - they become so used to me that they think that I belong there.
This puts a particular twist on the unobtrusive photography question - it's
not that I don't want them to know that I am there, rather that if they
suddenly notice that I am taking pictures of them they will start to worry
about whether I am really on their side or not. I used to use a Nikon F4S -
it did almost everything well apart from the fact that even when I was not
using it it drew attention to the fact that photography was going on. Leica
M's have proved the perfect solution. I know that for many professionals
being unobtrusive is not such an issue - they are up-front and confident
about what they are doing, and that confidence puts people at their ease.

Having found that my 1960 35mm Summilux is a little too unreliable wide open
I thought the Noctilux might be what I needed, but I now think I need the
extra width and the small extra amount of DOF that will allow me to shoot
whilst still being part of what is going on - without having to step back to
take more in. So I will have a go with a 35 Summilux Asph.

An even bigger difference between the likes of me and Ted, Mark et al. is
that hardly anybody gets to see my pictures. Most of the people that I work
with only co-operate on the basis that they are not identified in anything
that I write about them - which rules out the publication of photographs. I
use the photos for my own record and reference, and also to show back to the
people that I am working with in order to stimulate discussion. One day,
maybe, some of the pictures may be used to illustrate some writing, if the
participants are willing, but this is not very likely. So the main use of
the M's is not for the quality they give - though that is something that I
enjoy - but for the way of working that they allow.

The rest of my photography is also low-light - I take photos of my wife at
work - she is an actress, and when I can I take rehearsal or performance
photos, mostly using the 200 Telyt - and I take a frightening number of
photos of our thirteen month old daughter, mostly in the house in the
evenings.

So that's my personal photographic profile - I'm sure none of us fits any of
the simple, caricaturable photographic identities - either as professional,
collector, dabbler or whatever - that surface when there are disagreements
here on the LUG.

Simon.