Lists galore
24/04/09 21:15
It is impossible to miss the existence of lists: top ten fashion models, top twenty mistakes, top hundred movies, top ten cameras, you think of any object and there is certainly a list that refers to this product.
Almost every list is based on the personal views of the list designers. As valuable as this may be, here is a certain element of whimsicality about these lists. It would be more interesting to find a more objective benchmark. let us try this one: the Zeitgeist.
A good question might be to ask what product does represent best the Zeitgeist of the period. The answers would make a really interesting list of some historical importance.
Let me stick out my neck.
The Leica III series is the first camera that represents the Zeitgeist: not only HCB used one, it was the preferred camera for artists in the thirties when Bauhaus formalism met French surrealism. The Leica III was the best tool for the representation of these artistic goals.
The Leica M3 would be my second entry: it did represent the best tool for documentary photography and reportage photography.
The Nikon F would be next one: it is the icon for the fashion photography of the sixties and the reportage photography in Vietnam.
The next one would be the Canon EOS 3, the camera that initiated the transition from mechanical to pre-digital: specs of the camera became more important that the result: the dawn of the electronics dominance in photography.
The current camera would be the NIkon D5000: this is the camera that defines current trends in photography or what is left of the art and science of photography.
Almost every list is based on the personal views of the list designers. As valuable as this may be, here is a certain element of whimsicality about these lists. It would be more interesting to find a more objective benchmark. let us try this one: the Zeitgeist.
A good question might be to ask what product does represent best the Zeitgeist of the period. The answers would make a really interesting list of some historical importance.
Let me stick out my neck.
The Leica III series is the first camera that represents the Zeitgeist: not only HCB used one, it was the preferred camera for artists in the thirties when Bauhaus formalism met French surrealism. The Leica III was the best tool for the representation of these artistic goals.
The Leica M3 would be my second entry: it did represent the best tool for documentary photography and reportage photography.
The Nikon F would be next one: it is the icon for the fashion photography of the sixties and the reportage photography in Vietnam.
The next one would be the Canon EOS 3, the camera that initiated the transition from mechanical to pre-digital: specs of the camera became more important that the result: the dawn of the electronics dominance in photography.
The current camera would be the NIkon D5000: this is the camera that defines current trends in photography or what is left of the art and science of photography.