I would not attribute their presence at Arles to being "real" necessarily. I think they qualify as people who choose to go to Arles, and have the resources and opportunity to do so. In my experience, they range from utterly "real," genuine, generous and sincere to opportunistic, pretentious and phony. Just like at every other photo festival.
Well, true enough. But equally, they ain't there for an equipment fair. And getting an exhibition together at Arles shows that you're pretty serious about taking pictures. It may also be that the pretentious opportunistic phonies are the
least likely to be interested in equipment, because they 'know' that 'real' Fine Art photographers 'don't care about equipment'.
Critics and theoreticians such as Barthes and Sontag know nothing about photographic equipment and therefore cannot care about it. But every artist I've ever met, in every medium, wants to use the best tool for the job. Even writers want good WP programs, computers, keyboards (believe me!) Or in the days of typewriters, good ones (I used a Remington Noiseless). Or, if they're that way inclined, their favourite pen or pencil. And who, once they have heard of them, can forget Paddy Campbell's corduroy 'writing trousers'?
Because you
can make art using anything -- household emulsion, a penny whistle, Picasso's famous bull made from a bicycle saddle and horns -- and because some artists choose tools that are not, at first sight, 'first class' (Holgas, for example) an awful lot of people assume that it doesn't matter what you use. But as I say, to every artist I've ever met, it matters what they, personally use. And most have considerable curiosity about others' techniques and even tools. Curiosity is part of what makes them artists.
What I found particularly interesting about reactions at Arles to the M9 is that a camera that is often dismissed as suitable only for snobs, and those with more money than sense, evoked such interest from people who clearly did care about creating images rather than playing with equipment. And as the rest of ths thread has illustrated, 'old cameras' that 'no-one cares about' do, in fact, engage the interest of all kinds of people. For that matter, John's story about the fellow at Hampton Court Palace flower show with the big camera is a fascinating observation on the relationship between photographers and their cameras.
This isn't a thread about "I've got a..." because, God knows, we have enough of those on RFF. Rather, it's a thread about "How other people react to a ..." And I don't think I'm alone in finding it interesting.
Cheers,
R.
