14 thoughts on “475 Kent”

  1. I realize that this is a subject of contention in this neck of the woods, but I am in the market for a good camera bag, something in the range of $100-150. And I need a recommendation for a good shoulder strap as well, so if anyone has any suggestions that might fit the bill I will be happy to listen to them. Thanks in advance, folks.

  2. Akaky…

    It’s well over two years since I used a real camera bag, in my case my Domke bag. These days I use a small Nike sports backpack, well designed, very comfy and utterly discreet. I usually carry my GX1 or my Leica compact and generally my Canon 1ds II. Plus my E-book, bottle of water, two strobes and if accompanied by my kids fruit and a couple of their toys. The perfect camera bag doesn’t commercially exist and most camera camera bag designers should be shot or condemned to wear their uncomfortable creation for the rest of their lives. For many, many years I used to shoot primarily with a Leica M6 which I carried in a exact replica of the famous Indiana Jones khaki canvas shoulder bag, these days I miss both the camera and bag for their beautiful simplicity and perfect design.

  3. AKAKY

    talking camera bags with me is never “off topic”…I am pretty much with Paul on this…most commercial camera bags are not that great…most of them are too damned heavy …too too much protection or too many pockets…lightweight and discreet is what you want, and i too use mostly small sport backpacks…everybody has those, so nobody can guess what you have inside…

    PAUL

    i am really looking at a book or magazine on the Kibbutz…home of several quite well known photogs, artists, sculptors, etc etc….and just one helluva building..and i have shot so much there already yet have never really made a push to do so…i cannot just do another “this is my building” and the cool people who live in it essay…been done….i need a story a theme an adventure a buildup of some kind..so i will sit on this for a bit and then either do it or not….for now i only want to do small things…short essays…magazines instead of books most likely

    by the way, i go into the darkroom in earnest this weekend….shooting iPhone and med format film simultaneous…..seems contradictory but does not feel so…seems free and fine….even use the iPhone to “preview” shots i am getting ready to make w my 6×7 Voightlander Bessa when on a tripod…all flows..

    cheers, david

  4. Ross…
    Laughing!I don’t think one reflex camera with a 50mm lens, never any other lens and either my GX1 with a 20mm or my old leica minilux with a 40mm lens is too much gear :).

  5. What can I say about that building? I hardly know it. Yet in two short days it showed itself to be a magical nexus to me.

    That of course has little to do with the physical building itself but rather the intersections of life and interesting people woven through it. Life. It’s a trellis and a platform, a worn and splintered pallette, a gantry, and not a particularly pretty one at that though perhaps that much more effective in purpose for all its bare, stripped, nearly post-apocalyptic austerity. But damn, what a place. If there was ever a place where there is true magic, or something very much like it, then 475 Kent is that place. At least, that was my first impression.

    I have often wondered what it would be like to live there, at least for a short while, to throw off all the trappings and squat in Brooklyn to experience the serendipity that would surely come merely from the act of sitting in a chair with the door open. Some places, imbued as they are with the energy of fortuitous intersection, are special. 475 Kent isn’t a building, not really, or a place, it’s an idea.

  6. David…

    You’ve probably thought of this but just remember to look on your hardisks at some of the stuff you shot at the beginning of RoadTrips as you began to experiment with digital and your 475 Kent Road neighbours. ..

  7. BTW David did you ever find the images you shot in Tuscany with that Epson rangefinder? I showed you the magazine in Paris and I recall you were wondering where they were. Some really nice photos…

  8. PAUL

    yes, i did find those pictures and thank you for showing me that magazine….i think those were the very first or close to first digi pics i ever made…i did like that Epson camera….and too bad they did not choose to develop it a bit further…

    cheers, david

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