[Leica] Our existential pleasures

["Gib Robinson" <robinson@sfsu.edu>]

Alan Ball wrote:

> I guess that might be at least part of the reason I chose
> photography, and  now that I own the photographic Steinway,
> I realise I am far from deserving
> it, on creativity grounds anyway (I've worked my butt of to pay for
> those gems). How many luggers feel that way ?

I don't feel that way. I'm a good enough photographer to pubhish stuff on
the web or in print, but that's not the basis for my feeling. I feel
"deserving" because my Leicas give me pleasure and help me see and
understand the world around me. The photographs I make are the visible
product of what I do with the camera but the pleasure and the learning are
extremely important to me. At times I pick up a camera just to "get" a
picture. Most often I pick up a camera to "photograph" which for me
includes great quantities of both pleasure and learing. I use the camera to
see what's around me in many ways that I do not see only with my eyes. In
that sense, my Leicas are my teachers and the "creativity" is not just in
making a strong photograph for others to see. It's internal as well. It's a
form of "re-creation" and "in-formation" -- light in formation.

- --Gib