Thoughtfactory: Leica poetics

Leica, film, snaps, chronicles, cliches

Leica v AI

The two  pictures below was made whilst I was on a poodlewalk in my local coastal area along  the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. They were  both made  with a 1970s handheld Leica rangefinder with Kodak Portra 400  ASA film. Its  bare bones  photography. The film  was then processed in a commercial lab and the negatives were  scanned to create a digital file (jpeg).  

This classical and hybrid approach to the photographic  is in marked contrast to the AI and computation that has entered the aesthetic realm in the second decade of the 20th century.  Aesthetic machines such as Midjourney's Discord server  can generate images that appear to be human made.  This  AI imaging is a machine-learning system, and it's  software enables you to create images that look like photographs, oil paintings, cartoons, etc. You can leave your expensive  camera in the cupboard. 

Leica+ bark: b+w #1

I purchased  my silver Leica M4 rangefinder in Melbourne in the late 1970s. It quickly became my walk around camera and I became very comfortable  with a rangefinder as opposed to the then popular and more versatile single lens reflex film  cameras.  Unfortunately, the Leica's  rangefinder was damaged when it fell to the ground in Brisbane around 2011. The camera strap broke and the camera hit the concrete floor with a thud.  I then  lost  it  for around 10 years or so.  

It was found in 2021 and in early 2022 I sent it to Leica in Germany  to have the rangefinder repaired and the camera serviced.  I then bought a second hand, modern Summicron-M 35mm f/2 lens. 

Despite being made in the 1960s this 60 year camera  now looks and works as if it were new. I could see why  it's classically  minimal, industrial design or aesthetic would appeal to collectors;  and why it has a much higher monetary value today  than a contemporary  digital camera. (The Leica's value keeps on increasing). 

I started photographing with the unmetered Leica M4 using  black and white  film in a very modest way this year --the M6 was the first metered M rangefinder (manufactured between 1984 to 2003).  I  made  photos using Ilford HP 5 Plus film whilst I was on  the various  poodlewalks  in the local bushland. This  one of bark along Depledge Rd in Waitpinga  is one of the early photos that I made:

I was trying to see the world around me in black and white after years of photographing in colour.  A colour version is here.

eucalyptus abstractions

The picture below is an abstraction of a section of the trunk of an eucalyptus tree in the Veale Gardens section of the Adelaide parklands in South Australia. It was  made using  an old Leica rangefinder camera from the 1980s ---- a M4-P with a 50mm Summicron prime lens.   This  very basic and simple film camera (manual focus, no light meter)  is the complete opposite to  the modern technology of contemporary digital cameras (Sony, Canon, Nikon).  

I  had some time on my hands that afternoon, so I  wandered around looking at the tracks of the various eucalypts.  I was looking for the possibilities for abstraction.  The colours of this  particular  trunk caught my eye. 

tree roots: Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges

The picture below is a snap of some  tree roots in a dry  creek bed on the eastern side of  the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges  in South Australia in 2021.  We had traveled on the gravel Arkaroola-Junta Rd along the eastern edge of the ranges,  then turned into the North Flinders Rd  passed Wertaloona Station, then  crossed the Wearing Hills  through the Wearing Gorge.  

I cannot remember which creek it was. More than likely it was Wearing  Creek as we drove through the creek bed whilst the gorge. 

We were returning to  Hawker via Blinman after  we had been 7 days walking in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges. Our  camp, which was  organised by Retire Active SA, was  at  the shearer's quarters  in the old Balcanoona Station --- a one time sheep/pastoral  station. The station homestead is  now  the National Park Head Quarters. 

fire

We need to speak bluntly today.  

The bushfires in Australia are becoming more common and they are now more severe than they were due to climate change.They have become firestorms. 

This connection is often denied politically by those on the conservative side of politics who spin, dissemble and gaslight.   They say that historically Australia is a land of fire and flood.  Nothing new here. It is just the eternal recurrance of the same. This response represents  a denial of the danger of fire storm and it is a part of the conservatives  doing every thing possible to frustrate climate action.  

But the bushfires of yesterday are now the firestorms of today -- eg., the  fires along the Great Dividing Range  of the Black Summer of 2019-20.   These  fires were far from normal. 

what is poetic photography?

Over time, this minor weblog has evolved  from being  a Leica snapshot blog into one  about visual poetics in photography. Based on using a 1980s  film Leica rangefinder camera  this  approach  stands in contrast to the Leica being associated with, and traditionally used for,  photojournalism and urban street photography in the 20th century.  Recall black-and-white and Henri  Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank  or Lee Friedlander.  

My  equipment is simple: a hand held  Leica  M4-P camera,  a standard Leica 50mm Summicron lens, a basic handheld lightmeter,  and Kodak Portra 400 ASA film  with  the negatives  processed  in C41 by a commercial lab and then scanned by me using a  little Plustek  Opticfilm 8100 scanner. The post processing, which  is done in Adobe  Lightroom  6, is minimal.  It is basic technology with the construction  of the image is done in camera. 

This image of the Balcanoona shearing shed in  the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park in South Australia when  I was there in the winter of 2021,  is an example of my approach.      

Though I struggle  to make poetic images I  often wondered what poetic photography  means,  or refers to.   People usually say that poetics is the opposite of documentary and that it is a  form of  art photography and so  distinct from photojournalism. That doesn't get us very far since  it just identifies a genre of photography that is deemed to be experimental and  outside the constrictions  and the traditional structures of photography. 

at Balcanoona Creek

The photo below was made in the early morning in the Balcanoona Creek bed  in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park in South Australia in the winter of 2021. The Balcanoona  pastoral Station was acquired by the park in 1982 and is in Adnyamathanha country.  

It was the colours, textures  and light that caught my eye.

I was there for  6  days walking throughout  the Vulkathunha- Gammon Ranges National Park with friends under the auspices of ARPA bushwalkers.  This ARPA  event was known as the Balcanoona Camp,  and we were based  at the old  shearers quarters at Balcanoona Station, which is now the HQ of the national park. This was my  first time with  the ARPA bushwalkers  and  I was a C grade walker.  I wanted to be able to  have some  time to take photos, and to do so whilst walking through the ranges  on the various  hiking trails.  

wood abstraction

This wood  abstraction is from 2013. 

It is an  abstraction of a tree trunk in the Adelaide parklands:

I would have been on a poodlewalk in Veale Gardens at the time. The tree would have been cut down because it had been damaged in a storm. 

bark

This   picture of bark hanging from a branch of a pink gum  was  made on an early morning  poodlewalk with Kayla. The walk  was  along Baum Rd in Waitpinga on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. 

The picture  was made around the same time,  and in the same location,  as this  picture. Both  pictures were made using  an old, hand held,  film Leica rangefinder  camera during the Covid-19 lockdown. The negatives  from the anachronistic, unmetered, mechanical simple   Leica M4-P were scanned using Plutek Opticfilm 8100 scanner,  which is a dedicated 35mm scanner. The scan is a piece of raw material, for later editing in Lightroom. 

early morning light

This picture was made early in the morning  whilst walking along Baum Rd in Waitpinga on a poodlewalk with Kayla.

It is  a freeze-frame  of a transient moment   in early spring  that was with a handheld  Leica  M4-P rangefinder and Kodak Portra 400 ASA film.  The picture is an exploration of visual poetics.