davidivjak

Hi there! Thanks a lot for your kind message, it means a lot to me. You mean, you participated a black and white course where some of my images were included or are you going to organize one on your own? I am asking because it makes me curious who the people are I am reaching with my images and where they come from. Anyway, this is a big honor to me. 

Now to your question: Most of the images you can see here are made with my main setup, for medium format work it’s a Pentax 6x7 with the 105mm f2.4 and for 35mm my Leica M6 with a 50mm Summicron (v5) and a Voigtländer Nokton 35mm f1.4. If you’re interested in medium format, I can definitely recommend the Pentax 6x7 (or 67), it is just a beautifully built camera which allows you to shoot medium format in “35mm-style” and the lenses are amazing. I love the 105mm for everything, and I feel like it’s perfect for portrait work. The only drawback might be the minimum focusing distance of only 1m, but you can go for extension tubes which allows you to do some really impressive close-up work. About the Leica... sure, it’s a damn expensive camera, but I just fell in love with the rangefinder system, as these cameras are small, quiet and precise. And of course the lenses made by Leica are outstanding for 35mm. What I would’t recommend are the Voigtländer lenses, at least the 35mm Nokton appears to be quite soft wide open and shows some heavy vignetting. If you like the “classic” style, this nevertheless also might fit your taste. Sometimes I also use a Minolta X-700 with the 28mm, 35mm and 50mm Rokkor lenses. These things are really the bang for the buck, as the cameras and lenses are well built and you can find them almost anywhere. 

So much about the technical stuff... in the end I found out myself that it doesn’t really matter which camera / lens or film you use, as long as you have found a tool that suits your needs and lets you make the images you wanna make and lets you create them in a way you wanna create. What matters to me is the relationship and interpersonal encounters between me and my subject, which makes it possible to create something that matters to the both of us. 

Hope I answered your question. :-)

Thanks a lot!