with talk elsewhere of rff being mostly a gear forum and not so much a photography forum got me thinking a bit...
I think a distinction should be made here between art and craft and gear. There is nothing wrong with discussing equipment. I collect, I have many dozens of rare or strange cameras and I will talk off the ears of anybody interested in learning about them.
However when it comes down to discussing
photography, I would for example rather talk about a photographer's techniques, style, and craft, than what camera he happened to like. For most intents and purposes a camera is a camera is a camera, what model and brand are practically inconsequential in most cases. I'd rather discuss when HCB decided to press the button, or Moriyama shooting without looking, or Eggleston's long time use of extremely low perspectives - than what brand camera they used.
That's all craft related, but not necessarily unrelated to art. For art, it is sometimes interesting to see what the photographer had in mind when they were working images. What did they want to say to the viewer? And were they successful in making their point? Or when posting one's own images, what did you intend your work to do? Or what did you have in mind while making them? This is frequently ignored, if not outright discouraged.
This is all much more interesting than talking about what camera a person had. Sure, there are special cases where the camera played some crucial part in the process - maybe it was modified, or built by hand, etc. just to get the image. Or perhaps the creative process left some sort of mark on the equipment. That is
who here considers themselves to be an artist?
does being an artist impact your philosophy about gear? is gear just a means to an end or does it contribute to your art?
I don't produce any photographic art. But I appreciate some of it, and it does.
