2013 | Descanso Gardens, La Cañada, California
Tod Papageorge wrote long ago that “cameras are like dogs, but dumb, and toward quarry, even more faithful.”
The modest but extraordinary lens I used here was reviewed by some writers as being too sharp. For me, that’s a strange complaint. If that’s indeed their case, it’s left to the rest of us to take advantage of the lens character. I’ll just let the camera follow its nose, since it may be sharper than my eye.
*Tod’s full essay is in Aperture, June, 1974, “The Snapshot” issue. (quote corrected by DW 2021-04-30)
**The Leica Elmarit-M 28mm f2.8 Aspheric is not fast, just blazing. It is astoundingly rectilinear, and sometimes you just can’t tell how wide it is. For me, it draws the scene ‘normally,’ and plenty of it.