I love attending any free photography-centered event that offers refreshments and shooting opportunities. Most of these events go all out to provide a unique shooting experience, complete with everything from balloons to dancing bears. Leica loves to be different, and it's no surprise that they took a different approach—one more focused on community—for their recent celebration in New York City.
The weekend events were in celebration of the launch of the first mass-produced Leica camera, the Leica I, on March 1, 1925, and were held on a warm, sunny weekend inside and outside the Leica Store in New York City's Meatpacking District.
There were photo walks, a gallery show, remarks from Leica ambassadors, a chance to view some rare Leica cameras being auctioned in the coming weeks, and best of all, free Leica-branded chocolates.
One group event was a photo walk hosted by Leica shooter, Bill Brown. Before departing, Bill offered some advice to the group. “Be obvious about taking a photo. Don't be creepy. If conflict occurs, speak with authority, and this is really important: don't turn away from it. Don't try to run. Just say, ‘I'm taking photos. I'm with a photo walk. I’ll delete the photo. Don't worry about it. You can take another photo.’” He led the group through a meditation exercise before they departed, but I declined to participate in the walk because I wanted to be free to photograph the day’s events.
Loaner cameras and lenses were provided, and I took the opportunity to borrow the Noctilux-M 50mm f/1.2 ASPH. This lens is a recreation of a lens first produced in 1966. While companies such as Canon, Nikon, and Sony use modern technology to create only the sharpest, most flare-resistant, technically accurate lenses possible, Leica users appreciate those imperfections that can be aesthetically pleasing. The revered Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH is better in every measurable way, but the older version was re-released to cater to those who favor the rendering of the original formula despite it being technologically inferior. I used the lens, which features modern construction and coating, for many of the shots accompanying this article.
Because M lenses are manual focus, it is not uncommon to miss focus on even the simplest subjects when photographing with a rangefinder. The focusing mechanism is simple, and Leica lenses are legendary for their performance wide open, but when shooting at f/1.4, even the slightest movement by the subject or photographer will result in an image that is not tack sharp. I used the lens at f/1.2 most of the time, but I could see from reviewing images on the rear screen of my M10 Monochrom that I was missing focus whenever I was shooting someone talking in front of an audience. Many of the photographs for this article were shot at f/2.8. Leica rangefinders don’t record shutter and aperture information, so there is no way to know which were taken wide open. Photos that have noticeably swirly bokeh were likely shot at f/1.2.
I attended a talk featuring Ralph Gibson, who proclaimed, “I am almost as old as the camera itself. I was in art school, and I was working with another camera, and then my instructor loaned me an M2. I went on and took a picture, and I realized then and there, in 1961, when I was 21 years old, this camera is going to be what I'll use for the rest of my life. It's my Stradivarius. It's capable of doing anything I ask of it.”
Ralph said the rangefinder viewfinder, which shows the angle of view of a 24mm or 28mm lens, allows the photographer to see more than what is captured by the lens (when the photographer is using a 35mm or 50mm lens). “There's a symbiosis that only occurs in the rangefinder system, in my experience. You see what's inside of the frame; you see what's outside of the frame. I used to do exercises for my peripheral vision so that it would have exactly the same field of vision as my viewfinder,” said Ralph.
I don’t believe this often-repeated aspect of using a Leica rangefinder is an advantage in 2025. Many mirrorless shooters hold the camera at arm’s length and see far more of the outside world than a Leica shooter sees with their eye pressed against the viewfinder.
Ralph said, “Leica is continuing to prevail and grow to this day, in spite of the fact that all the competition is, let's face it, submitting to the smartphone. The reason why is it is essentially very ergonomic. It fits the hand. It’s suited to the rhythms of the body. When I take a picture, nothing interrupts my perception. And because I've been doing it so long, while I'm doing it, I might slowly move forward and slightly bend my knees. And by the time I get where I want to be, the frame is full and I release the shutter, a triangulation has occurred between the subject, the eye, and the camera. I have an autobiography called ‘Self Exposure,’ and in it, I list the six great decisions of my life. And the first one was in 1921 when I swore I wasn't going to use any other camera.”
Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica Camera, spoke about the importance of having a physical print of an image in the digital age. “When usually you ask someone, how many pictures you have on your phone? Oh, 20,000. What do you do with it? Send it to Instagram. What you see here (on the walls) is our commitment to photography, which at the end is the printout. This impression gives you a totally different view of the world,” said Andreas, speaking of the many images posted in the gallery across the street from the store.
Photograph by John Ricard. Leica M10 Monochrom with 50mm Noctilux f/1.2
Speaking of the famous Alberto Korda photograph of Che Guevara that has been featured on murals, posters, T-shirts, and tattoos, Andreas said, “The photographer had 11 seconds to shoot it. He shot two pictures. One is not that great. And the (famous) picture is not the original picture, because in the original picture, on the left-hand side, you see a person, and on the right-hand side, you see part of a palm tree. In 1965, he decided to cut (these elements) out and suddenly he had this image, which everybody knows.”
On the second floor of the Leica store, there was an interview station setup where attendees were asked about their connection to the brand. I spoke on camera and said that I love the M10 because it, “does what I need it to do, and it doesn’t do anything else.” I borrowed that sentiment from author George R. R. Martin, who used it to explain why he writes his novels on an old-school, unconnected DOS computer. Throughout the event, I enjoyed talking to my fellow Leica shooters about their favorite camera variant. Leica has a history of making major and minor tweaks to their flagship products, and the users love to debate the merits of things like black paint vs. black chrome finish. These aspects are as important, and perhaps more important for some users, than the specifications of the various models.
While I am happy with my M10 and its Monochrom variant, I wouldn’t object to owning an M11. This camera has 64 GB of internal storage. There is a newer variant called the M11-P that has 256 GB of storage, making it a better camera. The M11-P has no red dot and includes a logo on the top plate that the M11 and M10 do not have. I love the red Leica dot found on the standard M11, so if I were to move to the M11 series, I would not buy the M11-P despite the later camera having a substantially larger buffer. Some shooters prefer the 24-megapixel M10 over the 60-megapixel M11 simply because the former model retains the classic baseplate, while the newer model has a modern—and frankly more logical—design. Purchasing a Leica M body is an expensive endeavor, and the owner bonds with their camera in a way that isn’t common in today’s world of new and improved, but ultimately disposable, iterations of our favorite tech.
Leica shooters are a special breed that is often unfairly maligned in online discourse. We are sometimes viewed by the larger photography community as collectors rather than real photographers. Perhaps the fault lies in those users who spend more time posting photographs of their cameras rather than posting the pictures taken with the camera. Many M system bodies are constructed of brass with a coating of black paint, and they show wear and tear much faster than a standard DSLR. The fact that there are so many mint-condition M bodies for sale on eBay is evidence that these cameras are often purchased but not put to extensive use. There is another contingent of shooters like myself who connect with the M system and use the camera daily. I saw dozens of battle-scarred cameras at this event.
A Sony or Canon fan who sees every technological improvement as an asset in the image-making process may not understand the desire to use a camera like the flagship M11-P, which is designed very much like the M4, first released in 1966. If a photographer from that time were transported to 2025, the only camera they could operate is a Leica rangefinder. For those shooters who appreciate the “less is more” approach, this celebratory event gave Leica shooters a chance to connect without being viewed as pretentious camera collectors.
Photograph by John Ricard. Leica M10 Monochrom with 21mm Summilux.
I began taking photos in the film days. When I transitioned to shooting digitally, I could capture unlimited shots at no additional cost. I no longer had to worry about shots being over- or underexposed. However, my photography didn't change much. But when I look at my work before and after moving to digital, my work looks the same. The biggest change in my photography began when I acquired the M9 over a decade ago. I loved the look and feel of the camera, but its manual focus operation and inability to shoot closer than 0.7 meters made it impossible to create the same images with the M system that I had been taking with my Nikon.
Judging from all the smiles and heated conversations that spilled onto the street, attendees enjoyed this free celebration of the company that put 35mm still photography on the map 100 years ago. The Leica brand has long been associated with older white men, and most presentations I witnessed were given by this demographic. There were many women present, and I saw every hue of skin tone, so the brand is, in fact, appealing to more than one demographic. Perhaps at the next event, we will see more diversity in the presentations, but this celebration was well thought out and properly executed.
Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another 100 years to experience this again.
