[Leica] What has Leica done to my life?

[Alex Brattell <alex@zetetic.co.uk>]

Here's a long post. I was in a typing mood, feel free to delete.

I've been a Leica user and Lugger for about 6 months now so I thought it was
about time I contributed properly after having received so much help and
learnt so much here.

I'm  36 (already), live in London (East), and despite hypocritical ramblings
about non materialism I find myself surrounded by books, vinyl records and
photography related junk/treasure.

My work is basically divided into 3 types - 'Personal' work, 99 percent
monochrome, gets sent to a stock library, occasionally exhibited, sporadic
print sales. Many abstracts, simulacra, 'Geni Locii', landscapes of various
descriptions. A search for the miraculous, for archetypes and 'shapes of
thought'. Then I do general commercial work, from shoes to portraits to
interiors to food etc. Half studio, half location, mostly colour of course.
Quite a lot of music related photography. About half is editorial work. I
don't do sport (poker is the only sport I play!) and not so much fashion (an
exception is cover and 6 pages of the current edition of Skin Two - UK
glossy fetish and rubberwear fashion mag. See
http://www.skintwo.co.uk/index3.html). I also teach for one or two days a
week at an art college. I carry a camera every day, usually a 50mm or 35mm
and BW neg. If I'm only carrying one lens I'll change the one I carry every
few weeks, I find it wakes my eye up a little bit.

My interest in cameras by far post dates my interest in photography. My
first fancy camera was a Pentax LX, bought when I was 20 in 1981. It felt
right in my hands (the Olympus was too small, the Canon too big), didn't
scare me with digital readouts (like the Nikon F3 that seems so quiet
nowadays) and wasn't too dependent on batteries. It never let me down.
Later, I was employed as a photographer and used the firm's
Nikon/Hasselblad/Cambo/Bowens gear, only really taking an interest in the
equipment when I started to equip myself for working alone.

Simplicity in technology pleases me - automation dilutes intent more often
than not. I don't have a teasmade, camcorder, piles of remote controls or
anything autofocus. I suppose I've always been more interested in
specifications and design than features. I studied digital imaging for a
year and loved it, but it's unintended effect was to make me really
appreciate monochrome photography again, and the unique nature of 'classic'
lens and film combinations. In 1997 I was getting interested in Rolleiflexes
- - the father of a childhood friend used one in his job as a commercial
artist and I'd always remembered it. Then I read that the British fashion
photographer Terence Donovan had committed suicide. I was really struck by
this tragedy; he had achieved many things to which I aspire, and even had a
'life' as well! When his equipment was auctioned off at Christies I got a
catalogue and was fascinated by his collection. 'How could one guy ever use
so many cameras?'. It slowly dawned on me that I was missing the point, and
saw the fascination with the range of ingenuity and motive distilled into
camera mechanisms and lenses. I'd come across a branch of photographic
culture in which I was severely underdeveloped, and it was fascinating! (I
ended up buying a load of his lighting equipment). Maybe an interest in
cameras inevitably leads to the Leica.

After 6 months of using a Leica M6, the daily cost of ownership continues to
fall and the rewards mount up. What made me spend the equivalent of a very
long beach holiday on such a lovely pile of precision jewellery and what am
I getting out of it?

I'd always thought that Leicas were old fashioned, for collectors and much
too expensive.
Then they came down in price a bit (in the UK at least), and started to
really stand out as mechanical cameras in a world of plastic. I read in an
article in the BJP that the printer Larry Bartlett once said that he could
always tell a negative made with a Leica because of the quality of the
shadow areas. The more I learnt about rangefinders, the more intrigued I
became. When I first handled the M6 it was instantly apparent why this is
type of camera has been so important in the evolution of photography.
Hooked! Curses!

The things I like about the Leica M have all been stated often before by
others and I can only agree - composing in a viewfinder as opposed to the
glass screen of an SLR has a wonderful immediacy. Seeing outside the
framelines is great. Rangefinder focusing based on difference not resolution
is excellent. Not having the camera right in front of the face is important
(I'm right eyed but left handed). A quiet camera is a must. So far for me it
is the perfect camera, its limitations are to be accepted gracefully as they
all confer advantages (no switches, simple readout etc). Before I bought the
M6 Nigel Skelsey, picture editor of the Sunday Telegraph offered, amazingly,
to lend me his and said that he loved the camera but you get more on the
negative than in the viewfinder and so have to move closer (this is also an
advantage - the Leica draws you into something rather than encouraging you
to stand back). He also said that the camera makes the most lovely blurs and
I totally agree - it is fantastic at low shutter speeds for a feeling of
time and movement as well as capable of such good resolution. I don't know
why the good blurring, but I suppose that if they change the shutter on a
new M this could be affected.

I have bored my girlfriend silly about my journey to Planet Leica. She says
she loves my enthusiasm and doesn't complain about that extra trip somewhere
we could have had (what, go away without the Leica - unthinkable!) which
makes me love her even more, so I suppose Leica has been good for my love life.
One of my justifications for buying such an expensive camera was that I
hadn't ever lost a camera except in a burglary, I'd been in dodgy places,
demonstrations, bad weather, dead drunk, so why not carry a Leica every day?
So of course the first time I take it travelling it gets stolen (in Mexico
City). I was insured and couldn't wait to replace it, I felt that I was only
beginning to get the hang of it. Ouch, that hurt. If anyone tries to take my
second Leica, I'll beat their brains out with it, at least until the
accidental damage cover expires - after that I'll just run like crazy.

It'll take a year to get used to this camera, and 50 more to really get good
on. Seeing is so damn difficult!
My technique is challenged by optics worth learning to use properly, and my
work is changing as a direct result of the Leica. It's quietness gives me
confidence photographing people without being noticed, and my attitude to my
darkroom technique is shaken and stirred. An awful habit I had - to expose
for the shadows (BW neg) and develop for them too because I didn't really
trust the lens' shadow rendering and so compress highlights (I was
photo-bulimic - I knew I was doing it but just couldn't help myself!) - it
isn't happening with the M6 as the meter is more sharply defined and the
shadow rendering IS excellent.
I've used up a lot of film trying it out, just for the pleasure of using it
- - most of this 'playfilm' is dreary rubbish - but there are a couple of nice
pictures that otherwise wouldn't have been made, as well as some 'document'
pictures which could take on a certain interest with age.

Has the camera attracted attention? I recently photographed a small music
festival at General Pitt Rivers' (of Ethnography fame) exquisite Victorian
pleasure garden in Wiltshire. Someone I hadn't seen for a while (not a
photographer) exclaimed loudly 'WOW is that a Leica?' which made me cringe
and say something about 'just an old make of German camera.' A Japanese TV
cameraman looked at it and nodded knowingly - if anyone else has noticed
they haven't commented. In Mexico it was fine, really enjoyed the low noise
and it blended in, chrome and all, just another tourist's little box. Same,
of course, in UK.

I'm now on the verge of buying another M body which I hadn't originally
intended, the Leica was going to be a 'personal' camera. The 2nd body is for
jobs so I'm not always taking out and replacing half used film and I get to
use those expensive lenses more, and for travel (backup and 2 different
types of film). Beyond this the aim is not to own any more Leica gear (Did I
hear howls of laughter??). There is a fascination of The Wanderer inherent
in this elite miniature equipment, I'd like to keep this alive by not owning
any more Leica equipment than I can carry at any one time. (I suppose, like
Hercules and the calf, I'll just have to get stronger!).

I'll post another progress report in another six months, or even better, buy
the new Nikon neg scanner in the Autumn and put together a web site after 2
years of talking about it.

Thanks for reading

Alex