Thursday, January 20, 2011

Linhoff and Leica?

I am planning to shoot most of the Khon Thai series with large format cameras, Linhoff 4x5 and 5x7 cameras and maybe the Kodak Masterview 8x10.

I have been thinking that I might want to create a body of work using a Leica 35mm rangefinder as well. The 35mm shooting is so spontaneous and fast you can react (an idea/term a friend taught me), you can react to a situation and capture moments that would be impossible to capture with a large format camera on a tripod.

So far I have been quite happy with the 35mm Leica stuff I got in Klong Toey so it has opened up the future use of that camera. My initial influence in photography was W. Eugene Smith. To work with the same camera, film and developer he used to continue the tradition of doing documentary work in that same style, seems right and beautiful.

Will have to see how the final 35mm fiber prints look but right now based on what I have seen of the negs and the scans, 35mm photography is back!