Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/01/18

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Japan photographs
From: Karen Nakamura <mail@gpsy.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 22:09:17 -0600
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20040118151428.009ffa50@pop.2alpha.net>

Peter -


>>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).

Thanks! I liked  _Lost in Translation_ although I wondered if 
foreigners (ie. Americans) would find it as funny as we did. We were 
the only people in the theatre, literally rolling on the floor 
laughing.  I think many Americans thought it was non-PC to laugh at 
the scenes with the Japanese characters (e.g., the whiskey shoot with 
Bill Murray).

>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.

Thanks! That was part of my intent. People are people.  I guess 
that's where my vision as an academic anthropologist as well as my 
visual artist actually do come together.

>>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?

10 months as in a research sabbatical. I received a grant from the 
Social Science Research Council to take a year off to do some work. 
I'm taking a leave of absence from teaching. This will have a much 
more visual content than my dissertation, where I was still in the 
closet in regards to being a photographer, as well as ethnographer.


>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

Good shots! I'd try playing with angles, not always centering your 
subjects and having the backgrounds be exactly perpendicular to you.


>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.

Why not get the Contax mount Jupiter-12?  It's really a stellar lens, 
a must-have for any Contax/Nikon mount user:

http://photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/Lens-CS.html
http://photoethnography.com/gallery/paw2003/index11.html



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


Droool....... if I had a choice between an MP or a SP, I'd have to 
think veeeeeery long and hard about it.

Karen

- -- 
Karen Nakamura
http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/
- --
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In reply to: Message from Peter Klein <pklein@2alpha.net> ([Leica] Japan photographs)