Ansel wrote about an exchange he had with Weston, offering to give him a better lens than the one he used (which he had obtained at a Mexican fleamarket for a few bucks), and he also described Stieglitz's equipment as stuff that amateurs of the day would disdain. Manuel Alvarez Bravo used Olympus XA's in his '90s. Willy Ronis employed a couple of small consumer-grade Pentaxes & zooms. What LUG member would be caught dead using HCB's kit ?
And we won't even mention that horrible wooden wide angle camera that Bill Brandt built himself! The XA was a nice cam by the way - not to be confused with the models that had a number after the XA.
Incidentally - as you mentioned HCB - there was a French documentary on Cartier Bresson showing here (Oz-SBS) last night. He appeared to be going through a collection that was being produced for the French national archive and they were giving him final cut. So the conversation between him and a couple of curators went something like - "Yes, yes, not that one - it's terrible, yes, that's good, I didn't take that one...."
Stunned silence. Quizzical expression. "Oh I handed the camera to a friend - he took it."
More thoughtful silence. Curators glance at each other.
Turn the page.
"Yes, yes, NO, yes....."
So, I presume it remains in the oeuvre.
Strewth.
AndrewF
