"The Non-art Leica Snapshot"

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cz23

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I like this Erwin Puts quote from a recent blog post and thought I'd share it. It expresses the current direction of my own photographic interests, and I think speaks to issues debated in other recent forum threads.

The non-art snapshot is the stuff the Leica world is made of. And only when this style of snapshot photography is accepted as genuine Leica photography can we start to appreciate the camera and its lenses and uses. The photo-artist Feininger has written many books and one of them “Die Welt Neu Gesehen’ is an advice to start taking pictures without artistic pretensions but with a great admiration for the objects that reality offers us.... So forget about art and composition and just record whatever interests you and look afterwards in the picture to see what inspired you.​


My high school German is entirely rusted out, but I believe the book title he cites means "Seeing the World Anew." Correct me if I'm wrong.

John
 
I would like to quote the "Jungle Book" - "We are of the same blood you and I". To John Wolf and Erwin Puts, I'm with you. ARH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 
A valid point, but you don't need a Leica for that type of photography. When new to picture taking with 35mm I just clicked (sorry for the silly pun) with a little, fixed lens Olympus Pen viewfinder camera. The first model with the 28mm f3.5 lens and full manual control. See it, snap it, develop the roll and make contact sheets. (My eyes were much better then, now I need +4 reading glasses to see half frame contact sheets.) That was the most fun I ever had with a camera.
 
zuiko85 said:
A valid point, but you don't need a Leica for that type of photography....
Click to expand...

For sure. I'd say my GR facilitates this type of shooting better than my MM. But it's Puts, so....

Still, it's the spirit of his quote that resonates with me.

John
 
johnwolf said:
So forget about art and composition and just record whatever interests you and look afterwards in the picture to see what inspired you.​
Click to expand...

adding on to what @tunalegs said, with the above line, with reflection, I'd think with the countless flickr and instagram accounts the above statement we're/(the mass) already there isn't it?
 
I agree with newfilm, "record whatever interests you" has been going on for a pretty long time.
The crux may be "with a Leica". The heavy weight of expectations and all that.
I found freedom when I realized that all I wanted to do with my shiny gadget is to take happy family snapshots.
 
johnwolf said:
Die Welt Neu Gesehen’ is an advice to start taking pictures without artistic pretensions but with a great admiration for the objects that reality offers us.... So forget about art and composition and just record whatever interests you and look afterwards in the picture to see what inspired you.
Click to expand...
Happy family snapshots not included, but this is a good way to waste up a bunch of nice film, at least in my experience. edit: I should add more, What is the point of purely reflexive responses to objects that reality offers us? There should be some kind of awareness of the content of the picture, and its effect. It's also possible that the man's writing style is obscuring...whatever it is he's saying.
 
This is the kind of thing you tell people who have little time to photograph, but plenty of money to blow on cameras.
 
Ranchu said:
This is the kind of thing you tell people who have little time to photograph, but plenty of money to blow on cameras.
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Perhaps now (2017) but when I started in 1969 tri-x was $8 for 100 ft. bulk, a box of 10 Snap caps was $1 and I developed everything in Diafine. We folks just went nuts shooting whatever we wanted.

And, I shot half frame, ain't that crazy.
 
Ranchu said:
Happy family snapshots not included, but this is a good way to waste up a bunch of nice film, at least in my experience.
Click to expand...

Funny, I can usually get what I want with one exposure when it is people smiling at the lens, but I'm perplexed later, looking at how many shots of the rusty nail. What was that all about?
 
I carry my M9-P with a collapsible Elmar M 50 with me to work every day. It is a full frame standard focal length rig that fits in the palm of the hand. It's always on, and scale focus and manual or auto shutter settings allow for rapid shots. One of two digital Leicas sits on the piano stool at any one time. Nearly all of the action shots of our wonderful cat are taken with a film or digital Leica. The rest of the household uses the iPhone or Samsung. Far from being the modern Leica II I consider the iPhone the modern view camera. Sure it's always with you, but for cats or children it's just too slow. All you get is posed shots of the subject still for the camera.
 
Is this thing about "approval"?

Why do you need to think about the art or non-art of your work? Seems a waste of time and energy. I take photos for a living. But my personal photos have only been seen by 3 of 4 friends. My printer, who is a close friend, and a couple of photographer friends. None of them has seen all of them. There is nothing secret about them. They are mostly B&W landscapes done in both film and digital media.

I think I would have been happier at this stage of my life having worked as a long distance truck driver or maybe a banker. Both occupations would offer more opportunity for more personal photo time.

Why do you need to put your photo interest in a category or why does it need a title?
I really don't get it.
 
Considering photography's origins it makes sense ... it's just record keeping that the art world ultimately embraced for its own purposes.
 
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