Dont be a loser! https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2024/08/16/leica-is-for-looosers/

At the age of 36, after my world travels, my domination of the street sphere, a little time to think and meditate, compile my thoughts etc.… I really do believe now that Fujifilm is the way.

Truth be told, I have nothing but good things to say about Fujifilm. They have always treated me well, and I respect all of the people in the Fujifilm sphere. My recent workshop in Hanoi and Saigon with Chu Viet Ha, and all of the Fujifilm global events I went to.

OK… I’m starting to think about a good analogy between car companies.

First, we all know that Toyota is the best. There is no second best. Certainly Tesla is the coolest and sexiest, the most innovative, the most radical, the most forethink car, but in terms of the best car, it is bar none Toyota.

Even I was thinking about the new Toyota crown signia, I saw a brand new one in white, on the dealership lot in Culver City, and I was blown away! The design is so forward thinking, so innovative… Tribute told if I had to purchase a brand new automobile in 2024, that would definitely be the car I would want, because it is really one of a kind, you bought it, you would never see anybody else on the road with it!

Anyways back to photography -- my thought about the desire for a Leica M rangefinder is like the desire for a Porsche 911 car. But I have personally discovered is that anybody who drives a Porsche 911 car, they are all insecure Shorty guys, who don’t really really have anything else going for them.

And this is what is so funny; anybody who drives a Porsche 911 thinks that they are so cool, but not really. They are just another Shorty guy drone.

The same thing with the world of photography; it seems that everyone always has penis envy with the guy who owns the newest Leica M camera. And after critically engaging with the whole photography world from age 21 to 36, nearly 15 years ,,, what I have come to realize is that so much of the photography industry is based on insecurity, everybody trying to “prove themselves”, to some sort of random authority figure?

First, Henri Cartier Bresson is out. He was and is now a lame duck.

I think the sneaky thing is that what Leica is trying to do is to essentially prostitute the image the legacy or the concept of the romantic Henri Cartier-Bresson; the ideas that we live off the grid, travel the world and planet, prince around with our little Leica M rangefinder camera, the romantic narrow streets of Paris, etc.

Probably one of the greatest benefits that I’ve learned studying philosophy was that essentially, the whole French romantic movement, who are essentially a bunch of degenerates. As an American, growing up… The notion of romance, being “romantic“, I never really double thought about it. it was always seen as a good thing. To be romantic, was always as a positive notion.

But what I discovered is that romanticism is essentially an escape from reality; we create these fictitious fake false fantasy landscapes and realities, to seek some sort of alternative Utopia to our miserable daily grind of remote work, zoom calls, emails, PowerPoint presentations, etc.