JPG Magazine: Stories: My Precious: a camera is a camera is a camera

a camera is a camera is a camera

every one will agree, that to be in posession of a camera, be it a digital or an analouge, a kodak or a hasselblad, doesn't make one a photographer. and if you happen to be a true photographer (which isn't identical with a professional one), then you will photograph with whatever camera you have at hand or can afford, even when you know that with your cheap little instant apparatus you will never enter the photographers heaven. in my case, the unaffordabilty of what we call a "good" camera goes hand in hand with the insecurity in the city i happen to live in, that is lima, the constantly and ferociously growing and decaying capital of peru, on the desertic shores of the unpacific pacific ocean. in vast areas of lima to walk around with a camera is to be in constant risk of getting robbed. i have been assaulted four times, so far (and once, the robbers couldn't get away with my camera, because i turned into a x woman, or something like that). so, if this is still not enough to kill your drive, what could be better than to walk the streets with a little, inconspicuous camera? to walk, that is, to walk fast and take fast your pictures and go off fast. seen in this light, my little and already outdated pentax optio of barely 5 megapixels, which some years ago fell as a gift into my hands, has done an almost miraculous job. and far over the borders of the city, in the middle of the desert, on mountains, at the shore of the sea, in tropical forests, in all temperatures, at all times, on the road and everywhere. now, since dreaming doesn't cost anything, i now and then have phantasies of having a real good camera, more even, of having all sorts of cameras to try out and experiment, from a large format down to a polaroid, and maybe even of being able to make with photography a living.

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