In Stephen Shore's book of 8x10 photographs, the motel rooms are printed close to the size of the negative, so detailed you feel you can see the light itself. Large format is expensive, though, so one of us leaves his 4x5 on the shelf until a project deserves it. He also owns a Leica M4 that is 50 years old and flawless, built like a camera you could take to war. Now a new M11-P costs $9,500 without a lens. When he sent his M6 to Leica for repair, it took a year. He sent back a Leica SL2-S after two weeks, calling it the nicest soulless camera he'd ever owned.
One of us worries Leica is starting to go the way of Rolex, which was once a watch you'd hand down to your kids and is now a status symbol. That raises the question of where quality ends and luxury begins. We'd rather pay for the work of someone who has given their life to one thing, like a $350 messenger bag from Artifact Bag Company in Omaha. Things built to last pick up meaning, and one of us just had his grandfather's old shirt repaired so he can wear it all the time. The artists we admire did the opposite of cashing in on their name. Paul McCartney followed the Beatles by starting over with Wings and a set of only 10 songs.
Mentioned in this episode: Stephen Shore, Alec Soth, Leica, Rolex, Grand Seiko, Mamiya 7, Koni-Omega Rapid, Canonet QL17, Kodak Ektachrome, Artifact Bag Company, Levi's 501, Bob Dylan.
-Ai
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