My Fujifilm X-E1 rangefinder is beat to shit. I’ve dropped it numerous time. I even broke a fall with it during a hike while using the monopod it was on as a walking stick. Back in my photojournalism days I was a known abuser of cameras. During the digital era, I’ve tried to go a little easier on them (especially my cinema cameras). My X-E1 is apparently a bridge between those two eras.
Something interesting happened. My X-E1 became not as crisp and perfect as it once was. Go figure. And I love it.
Come to find out, rejecting digital perfection is now a trend in photography.
I mentioned earlier that I bought a new camera for street photography. But I have since decided that was a mistake. I’m putting my SONY A6400 to work for other jobs. My X-E1 remains my primary street camera precisely because of its trauma-induced imperfections.
I’ve already mentioned the role of “ratty” video in documentary film in my post about where I differ from the Malick dogma (see also my series on visual style):
4. Seek maximum resolution and fine grain: Yeah, maybe. Where I differ on some of these is in the necessity, in my opinion, to produce some ratty video as a rhetorical response to a particular situation. It’s an authenticity move. Trauma and mayhem in nonfiction shouldn’t look too polished. For example, here’s a still from the Oscar-winning White Helmets. The full movie is available on YouTube. Also see number 13 below.
and…
13. Shoot with steady handheld or Steadicam “in the eye of the hurricane”: Depends. Watch the first several minutes of White Helmets and tell me how those scenes would change the film if shot with a Steadicam. That’s an exercise, by the way, that I gave to my documentary film students to teach them that, sometimes, ratty chaotic video is the best. Then again, the eyes of hurricanes are calm. Hmmmmm…
Judging images by technical perfection is, in my opinion, judging images on the wrong thing. Relax and makes picture. But do hold onto your camera 😉