London 2009 / Kowa Six MM & Konica Hexar

This was October 2009, I was only beginning to get back to analog after years of shooting digital, I was quite uneducated in the field of street photography, also pretty rusty, and I'm surprised how much I still like the photos. Especially the Hexar ones. There was something comforting and empowering about the Hexar and its silent shutter. It really did feel as if I could go around, shooting unnoticed.

Not so with the overwhelming kerfplunk of the Kowa. Everybody noticed that. 

The photos from the two cameras are very different in mood and dynamism, which I enjoy seeing. In spite of unchanging surroundings, the tool dictates what you see, how you frame it and what comes out of it. To an extent, of course, but within the myriad different factors that play into making a photograph, the tool is quite obviously one of the bigger ones. Which is to say you can take great photos with both a pinhole cam made out of a box of matches, or a Hasselblad --only the said greatness will be directly influenced by the different tool, and so, it will land in a different niche. Some niches are more easily accessible and recognizable --which is what we could call the standardized version of beauty. I'd say the Hassy, as a tool, locates itself closer than not to easily making images that fall into said readily recognizable niche. Others, like the pinhole, or a toy camera, or a 100 old camera with haze and fungus in the lens, will fall into a niche that, in order to be recognized and appreciated, probably requires a bit more knowledge of and orientation within the context not only of the medium of photography as it is, but also of the tools and the possibilities they create. I like playing with these contexts, and I guess this is where my interest in collecting old cameras comes from, at least in part. Seeing the extension of beauty, and how its representation depends on the tool used to convey it, is exciting.

Well, on to London now.

 Kowa Six MM

Konica Hexar AF