The permanence of film will make you stop and think before you shoot, though that isn’t always a bad thing.

—Generations Later, Leica’s Iconic Shooter Keeps Clicking in Wired.

If you take a good look at older photographs made with that almost forgotten technology (silver halide emulsions and chemical processing), you may note a peculiar characteristic. The classical pictures show an involved interest and a careful way of looking, that is absent from current digital images. When you have only 36 pictures at your disposal, there is an adrenaline rush that forces you to capture the now-or-never moment, as you have only one chance.

—Erwin Puts, Frugality and the art of looking at Tao of Leica.

• Patrick Thomas, the head of the French luxury goods group Hermès is on the Board of Directors of Leica Camera.
• Hermès has a 49% stake in the Japanese subsidiary of Leica.

Via LR.

We will be rolling out the fresh features to the entire Flickr audience in the coming weeks, but why wait? The new photo experience is available for signed-in members to preview now. To opt-in, visit any photo page and follow the directions on top of the image.

—Josh Nguyen, A New Photo Experience: Your Photos, Happier on Flickr Blog.

Took them years to add a 'view on black' option — well, better late than never.

Saul Leiter must be the last of pure breed bohemians. Watch his story at International Center of Photography's Lecture Series Online web site.

Cannot link to content — God, I hate how it so often happens that Flash web sites epitomize terrible usability! — you need to go to Video → 2009 → Leiter Saul: Life Lessons → press the red dot.

Thanks, Spo.

My favorite image in a long while: Hug by Junku Nishimura on Flickr.

Just... wow.

I'm a fan of Hajdu Tamas, an outstanding photographer from my hometown, Baia Mare. If you don't follow his blog Original Bedroom Pixels, you should.

1. Develop at a temperature between 17-24°C
2. Immediately protect from direct light
3. Caress with all your analog heart

—Impossible projects by Impossible GmbH; Impossible has launched its new instant film for Polaroid's instant cameras.

Dig for your 3D glasses and have a look at Jacques Dequeker’s 3D Story for The KRTL Collective.

The Online Photographer features Romanian photographer Petrut Calinescu.

I've seen Yang Yongliang's works exhibited at the 40th Anniversary of the Rencontres d’Arles, and — even if they look like Chinese shui-mo hua from afar — boy they're techno and detailed when you get close!

Moments when they're astonishing, the life, the light reaches 50 faves on Flickr. Thank you all.

Cristina Garcia Rodero's Between Heaven And Earth at Magnum in Motion. Play it full screen.

Thanks, Iancu.

Todd Hido "isolation and anonymity in contemporary suburbia" (Wikipedia) — relax and let it sink in.

Browse this—the weekend comes and there's time to kill.

The Leica name is known for high quality and the X1 sure as hell gives high-quality images.

—Steve Huff in his The Leica X1 Digital Camera Review.

Leica does some nice packaging jobs lately, have a look at the unpacking video.

Gorgeous issue 28 of Urbaum—check out image #5 and shake your head in awe and disbelief: is this for real or a frame from Avatar?

Amazing work, Dan.

As witnessed by Bumbuț.

I wonder whether the priest has a Flickr account—that would be totally Faith 2.0.

If you want to do it, here is how: Switching from a DSLR to Rangefinder Camera a Q&A with Steve Huff.

If you want more, here is why: The Leica as Teacher.

One thing the Noctilux has plenty of is bokeh. That beautiful background blur that some lenses get so right while others get so wrong. The Noctilux has the most gorgeous out of focus rendering I have ever seen. Ever. Period. End of story.

—Steve Huff in his The Leica 50 Noctilux F 0.95 Lens Review.

Also: a short video and my favorite photo.

Point your time-traveller time rewinding telescope right towards medieval Japan and let your imagination go bonkers.

Via @IuliaStoian.

Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961–1967. 1,500 copies, all signed and numbered—you better be rich.

Via @IuliaStoian.

In her own words:

My name is Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai. I’m a dinosaur. I work entirely with B&W film and older (sometimes vintage) cameras. [...] I like grit in my music and grain in my photographs.

Black and white film and a beautiful soul, that is. See her portfolio and her blog.

What happens in the desert stays in the desert. Photos by Hector Santizo.

Junku Nishimura's (aka _junku-newcleus) impossibly expressive black and white photographs are featured in latest Plateform Magazine. I also like this Issuu PDF-serving platform.

"He studied with Mr. Brodovitch in Philadelphia as a young man and came to New York in 1937 as his unpaid design assistant at Harper’s Bazaar, the most provocative fashion magazine of the day. But it was under Mr. Liberman, at Vogue, that Mr. Penn forged his career as a photographer."

New York Times notes. While there, watch the slideshow.

Michael Reichmann reviews The Leica M9 in Paris:

A Nikon D3x or a Canon 1Ds MKIII can be used as a point and shoot. For all of their sophistication and complexity, with these and similar cameras one can completely remove oneself from the process and just press the shutter.

With an M9 that is not the case. Because it is resolutely manual focus the camera demands that you become involved in the photographic process. This is another aspect of the Zen of Leica M Photography. There's no slacking off. There's no fully auto-everything mode. You must at least manually choose an aperture and you must always focus by eye.

A lengthy yet insightful review worth reading if interested in Leica M cameras in general and the M9 in special.

Ryan Schude — Californian neo-surrealism. Personal favorites: the impetuous biker, the kindness of strangers, and the depressive mini-skirt.

Via @IuliaStoian.

"As a boy, I looked at my father's Leica like a sacred object. My heart was beating fast when I was allowed to use it for the first time." Wim Wenders.

I still get that rush sometimes in the seconds before taking a shot.

But OG, OMG, OMFG, Tommy Oshima-san likes a picture of mine! It feels like getting a "I dig your solo, man" postcard from Eric Clapton. Yeah. Sort of.

Maurice Sikkink via e-mail:

We at Rollip.com have developed a new site that lets you give any digital photo the classic look and feel of a vintage or Polaroid picture. [...] We've put extra effort into giving users more options for customization and better quality effects.

Go try Rollip. You might like it.

Real-world Leica M9 images are available in the new Flickr M9 groups: Leica M9 Rangefinder and Leica M9. Just sayin'.

Absolutely.

DPReview — Leica M9 and hands-on preview: Leica has officially revealed the M9 — a full frame version of its M-mount rangefinder. The Leica M9, with its 24 × 36mm, 18 megapixel sensor is, according to the company, "the world's smallest full-frame system camera."

DPReview — Leica X1 and brief hands-on: X1, a compact camera with a large APS-C sensor and a fixed 35mm equivalent field-of-view F2.8 autofocus lens.

Don't miss the Leica Solms Factory Tour feature.

Three Flickr users that I'm totally in awe of:

• Junku Nishimura aka junku-newcleus;
• Toshihiro Oshima aka TommyOshima;
• The user known as papaiya or :pap.

I bought the Noctilux inspired by Tommy Oshima's photos.

"Adjustments of color or gray scale should be limited to those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction, analogous to the “burning” and “dodging” that formerly took place in darkroom processing of images."

Excerpt from a reminder of The Times’s policies on digital manipulation or other alteration of photos.

No cloning, no senseless HDR.

Is this Leica M9 and X1 leak out ahead of schedule thing true?

Ah, The next Generation of Leica Cameras live webcast scheduled on 09/09/09 suddenly makes sense.

The M9 might melt my heart back into shooting digital once in a while.

Zhang Xiao: male, born in 1981, Shandong province, China; 2005 graduated from university of Yantai architecture; photographer.

Via Mendoza.

"The chances of Leibovitz’s getting out from under the pile of debt now looming over her seem slim."

How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz? asks New York Magazine.

The answer is an unsettling story.

The Czech photographer Vlad Artazov documents in great detail a nails’ life. Great humor, great execution.

Dan lives in New Zealand and his Urbaum project displays exquisite pictures — between Zen and Mars, between Baraka and Bible — otherworldly and impossible to describe. Zoom in!

If you're addicted to high speed lens — you freak! — should take a look at Cosina's Voigtländer branded Nokton 50mm F1.1 for the Leica M mount.

Sexy, ay?

Through the eyes of Richard Avedon because — as my friend Mr. Mendoza said — "A little fashion won't hurt anyone".

"A year with a single Leica and a single lens, looking at light and ignoring color, will teach you as much about actually seeing photographs as three years in any photo school, and as much as ten or fifteen years (or more) of mucking about buying and selling and shopping for gear like the average hobbyist."

—Mike Johnston, The Leica as Teacher.

Except that after a year you might not want to go back. I know I don't.

"This is a collection of [...] their passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions. A new story will be added weekly."

Black and white. Damn, this is beautiful.

Thanks, Mr. Mendoza.

Get a DSLR. Take pictures. "Process" them a bit, you know—recover lost highlight and shadow detail, work your mouse with a bit of dodge and burn, clone out the unwanted, add in a little texture here and there, miraculously enhance the contrast.

Or, if you're really blatantly shameless, go for the full scam: HDR!

Did you learn some photography? Hell no! You learned some damn Photoshop trickery.

Congratulations for being a lousy photographer!

Thanks, Iancu.

"A crazy Japanese," (to quote Iancu) Shinichi Maruyama. Indeed.

Beyond awesome.

Babel Tales, a series of stylized and composed NYC street photos by Peter Funch.

Via Fresh Signals.

Why is it that NYTimes is among the few that constantly come up with this kind of great features? Now really, why?

Some web/publishing people, while too dull and lazy to get 'web 1.0' done right, blabber copiously about 'web 2.0'—let the fucking user do the heavy lifting, let the 'community' come up with the content, give the suckers means to keep each-other entertained!

Thanks, Mr. Mendoza aus Berlin.

Tommy Oshima's Tanatos - Apocrypha. Unmistakable.

Not a great year, 2008. Not the worse, but not jolly good either.

Here's the year 2008 in photographs [part 1 of 3].

Thanks, Iancu.

Schools of thought regarding magazines asking for free pictures:

• Photos not being too different from quotes so press can have them for free;
• Photos are more like written articles so press cannot have them for free, obviously;
• Fuck them, is too low class to debate!

Time Magazine trolling for free pictures on Flickr.

Via Tom Coates.

The Release of Pricu, a final episode in "Aiud Prison" series by Cosmin Bumbuț. Epic work!

Previously on the same subject.

Don't forget to bookmark Bumbuț' blog.

Update: Cosmin pulls the series — it was a raw and unedited preview. Sorry.

Do you know what a field of sastrugi is?

"It's fun and gratifying to appreciate the industrial design and the exquisite machining of old Rolleis and Leicas and so forth, and to hold other cameras up to those standards to see how they compare. [...]

But I just haven't felt that way about polycarbonate cameras. To me they're not aesthetically pleasing objects, not objects to love. [...] The best ones are... okay. Are any of them beautiful? I guess I don't think so."

The Online Photographer.

The sun, as you might never have seen it before.

"Avoid making a commotion, just as you wouldn’t stir up the water before fishing. Don’t use a flash out of respect for the natural lighting, even when there isn’t any. If these rules aren’t followed, the photographer becomes unbearably obstrusive."

Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Watch videos first. Then take half a minute to meditate about how freaking small our world really is.

Via Kottke.

Photos of junk drawers and medicine cabinets.

Via Kottke.

If your Leica does not look like this, then you are not shooting enough!

Obviously, I have to shoot more. I get it.

Pictures of Singapore Grand Prix — the first Formula One race held at night. God I miss that place!

Yeah, a Leica camera can do that to you. Trust me, I know — Leica corrupted me, too.

Via DF.

"Leica has launched an entirely new digital camera system destined to bridge the gap between more versatile professional digital SLRs and medium-format high resolution models." Read about the new S2 Leica SLR — and admire its spartan looks — in The British Journal of Photography.

The new Leica Noctilux-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH (surpassing the speed of the human eye) will be available from February 2009 for €8000.

Smile!

Leica's offical Photokina 2008 product announcements on the pro side:

• Leica M8.2
• Leica Noctilux 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH.
• Leica Summilux-M 21 mm f/1.4 ASPH. (a world first!)
• Leica Summilux-M 24 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
• Leica Elmar-M 24 mm f/3.8 ASPH.

Oh God, this hurts.

Classic masterpieces of photography reenacted with Lego.

Via Oskar.

Wondered about the strange illustrations on Adobe's CS2 Suite packaging? They're x-rays. Easy. But a plane?!?

Bumbuț uses public transportation.

"Terrorists taking pictures is a quintessential detail in any good movie." Or how Hollywood fucks up.

Via DF.

The product of an 8-week helicopter expedition from Hamburg to Cape Town: Eyes Over Africa by Michael Poliza.

Bumbuț posts an incredible image. Ironic and depressing at the same time.

The "Feature Photography" 2008 Pulitzer Prize goes to Preston Gannaway for her intimate chronicle of a family coping with a parent's terminal illness. To see the feature, go to PrestonGannaway.com → Stories & Essays → Remember Me. Via TOP.

An image is worth a thousand lies, when Photoshop gets involved.

Photographer Cosmin Bumbuț puts bumbutz.ro at work by launching a photo-blog. His regular web site remains at bumbutz.com.

"I think it would look better without... without... without the crown" — Annie Leibovitz photographing the Queen.

Thank you, Mendoza aus Berlin.

“A big warm kiss, like a shot from a revolver, and like the psychoanalyst’s couch.” Cartier-Bresson on how he thought of the Leica.

Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Issue: reenacting Hitchcock.

End of chapter in photographic art: Polaroid to exit instant film as demand goes digital. Via LL.

Celebrities doing what we really, secretly, want to see them doing. Amazing.

360° panorama of Patong Beach. Click to enlarge.

Bangkok street panorama. Click to enlarge.

Siam Paragon's top floor, Bangkok. Click to enlarge.

Siam Paragon, Bangkok. Click to enlarge.

Tilt-shift photography: Ben Thomas, City Shrinker; Cosmin Bumbuț, Tilted Land [pdf].

Flickr introduces Stats — feature only available to pro account holders.

Now you can edit your pics on Flickr.

Skin — official Nikon importer in Romania — announces D3 and D300 DSLRs launch on Romanian market. Links in Romanian.

Tongue in cheek mastery: Matt Stuart. Thank you, Iancu.

Peace Wall photo went right from this blog into the pages of Esquire Romania, illustrating an article about Russia. Thank you, Raymond.

What a charming species we are in October! Whipping scars, guys "clearing out" other guys, "The last Jew in Vinnitsa" and a woman crying for uncertain reasons. [Thanks, Roxana.]

We'll always have Paris. 360° of it. And Shakespeare. [From Alia]

Surrealism is alive and doing well on Flickr, in Noah Wilson's black and white set Aberrations. Lay back and view it as a slideshow. [via Tumblr]

Video for FORM video installation shot by Richard Reens in Malaysia, Frankfurt and New York, starring supermodel Chandra North. Beautiful black and white photography — besides directing, Richard is an amazingly gifted DOP.

Horrible, horrible weather in Bucharest today — sabotage it by peeking at Jan von Holleben's Dreams Of Flying and you'll automagically remember how to smile. I even laughed loudly at the ninth. Fuck the rainy day. [from Vudu Cat]

Mihai Ovidiu Popa (aka Spargluna, aka Psalmplasma) shots Tokyo like a mash-up of Matrix, Gattaca and Blade Runner. Don't miss it.

After a hiatus since closing her old blog, Miri Bratu is back with a new one: Simț enorm și văz monstruos. Update your bookmarks. [in Romanian]

For those enjoying their day-after coffees, here's a drop of milk to go with your brewed goodie.

Don Hong-Oai studied with the famous 104-year-old master, Long Chin-San in Taiwan. Here he learned to work in a Chinese "pictorial" style, using several negatives to compose a picture and perfecting his landscape work. Unspeakably graceful.