This photo book started out as a Leica blog of the pictures that I'd taken with my Leica rangefinder--- a M4-P. The blog form means that its roots are internet based. In contemporary visual art, Internet-based art forms have for the most part remained in a media art ghetto with little exposure within the system of contemporary art biennials and contemporary art centers.
I'd primarily used the Leica M4-P with a Leica Summicron 50mm f2.0 rigid lens. Most of the early work with the camera was done using black and white film (Kodak Tri- X) which I developed myself in a wet darkroom with chemicals.
The Leica M system is seen as a reportage camera, rather than a versatile all-round camera, but the tight integration of body and lens ensured good performance, and Leica's focus was on simplicity of use and on basic photographic functions helped define the snapshot style of picture taking.
Photography now means digital photography. Continual change in digital technology and shortening of product cycles is the rule, and Leica has responded by shifting from an engineering to a luxury company with most of its new products now positioned in the luxury class. In this they follow the design rulebook of Apple.
I gave up film photography when I was doing a PhD at Flinders University of South Australia in the 1990s and whilst I was working in Canberra. Towards the end of the Canberra gig I slowly came back to digital photography to build a life after politics. I started using the M-system with colour film, which was processed and scanned by a pro-lab, with the pictures uploaded to Flickr and a photoblog which are then viewed on a computer screen. This digital workflow is different to the experience of classical film photography, and it indicates how the Internet has changed the way we understand photography.