Photography has changed since 1827 with Niépce. Consider that the art form has gone through plate photography, film photography and now is in digital photography. But beyond the technology used to capture an image, the styles of photography have changed and so have the photographers. 
George Eastman made great strides to turn a pastime of the elite into an adventure of the common man. While film photography was never cheap, he made it accessible to many more people. This changed the person behind the lens and their journey, and the art they created was different.
For an example consider Henri Lartigue, a young man who was born into the upper class of France in 1894. He was given his camera by a father whose belief was that his children would never have to work a day in their lives so they should enjoy life. And enjoy life they did and fortunately (for us anyway) Henri Lartigue was given a camera and he rarely put it down.

Both photographers created art. Both were true to their convictions. Both are master photographers that I admire. But their journey's were very different from one another and as we can see from the art they created, the journey really does matter.  

I am reading Edward Weston's Daybooks which is an interesting glimpse into his daily life. There is a bit on life in the 1920's, a bit on convention, photography and technology in there to enjoy. But one concept he brings forward is the evolution of an artist. He speaks to Diego Rivera's work and is initially enthralled by his work.  But over the years he does not see Diego evolving. He sees him merely mimicking previous success while other, less known artists, kept evolving making better and better art.

This got me thinking about the journey that Lartigue and Hine had and how this impacted their art. I also began looking to see how their work evolved over time. And an interesting thing struck me, the vast majority of the masters of photography evolved in their work. Their journey took them to different paths and new ways of seeing the world. And this impacted their art.

We are all going on a journey and it is influenced by everything we have around us. Social media has made a massive impact on the journey and by its nature, the outcome as well.

If I look at my photographic journey so far, I would note that I was first drawn to photography because of a need to take pictures of my growing family and out international lifestyle. I became fascinated by the physics and mechanics of the equipment and I pushed to learn more.

I quickly found the internet to be a very powerful tool to learn photography. We had been transferred to Saudi Arabia and photography was frowned upon back then. So I could not take my camera out, so I made up for it by studying and learning. I found photography forums and began posting and learning. It was wonderful to take still life's in the house and then get the critique back. I tried HDR photography, and made all sorts of wild photographs that were clearly impossible to actually exist. Every element I tried I felt would be it for me. It became my photographic world until the next gimmick was found.

This then took me to look for on-line classes and I found Kelby Training. Wonderful videos on demand to teach you all kinds of photography related concepts. I kept trying to understand how to build an image worth looking at. Snapshots were not good enough I wanted to image that grabs the viewer. In one of the video classes I was told to try some photography tours, which I did. In all the places we visited I found a local photographer who would be willing to take me along on a day trip. I watched them work, I learned.

My next step was to look at the masters of old. I found a YouTube channel where Ted Forbes introduced me to a bunch of master photographers. He began speaking about their motivation, inspiration and their evolution. I began to buy photography books and I began to look through them. Every Sunday morning, while the family was asleep, I had my coffee and I went on a journey with one of these master photographers. Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, Sally Mann and so many others. Some alive, most dead.

Now my journey is still evolving. I am in the darkroom making chemical prints and I am pick up my camera based on the type of photography I want to shoot. I stopped carrying so much gear and lenses and stick to the basics. I now shoot based on shared memory. I believe we all have a memory of a simpler time, of simple objects and simple pleasures. Tapping into this shared memory is what fascinates me at the moment. I rarely get it right but I am trying and having a great deal of fun with it.

Now I am making prints of simpler things and then going back to the print to improve on them. Not only am I going on a journey so are my photographs. They are not done until they are put in a frame and few get that honor and even fewer stay in their frames. My tastes are changing, my photography is changing but much as Lartigue did, I shoot what makes me happy.

I bought my first digital Leica back in 2016 in London. I got a good price from it with very few actuations and in perfect cosmetic shape. It is the Leica ME.  For those unfamiliar, Leica decided to make a "more affordable" digital camera and created the Leica ME. It is essentially a Leica M9 with a few software changes, a different color paint but still the same Leica quality (both good and bad but that is a story for another time). 

I knew a bit about the Leica sensor issue, but since (at the time) Leica was replacing the sensor free of charge I did not worry too much.  I never needed the sensor changed and after a recent check have seen that mine was built with one of the newer sensors but still CCD.  There are some differences between the CCD and CMOS sensor, some positive and some negative but as with most photography related things, it is a subjective discussion.

A few years ago I purchased a Leica M10 but cannot seem to allow myself to sell the Leica ME and the reason is that little CCD sensor.  It produces a color that I cannot get from another camera. So I carry a heavy, old camera with a horrible back display screen and suffer through slow reaction times and horrible low light performance. All this for a color treatment I cannot seem to replicate. 

Couple the Leica ME with a Zeiss Planar 50mm f/2 lens and you have a magical combination. Open it wide open and watch the background detail fall away, and the colors just seem to fall into place.

Even with the technological advances this camera lacks, it is still a powerful artistic tool. Compared to the film cameras I like to use, this camera has a great deal of technology wizardry. So even today, in 2023 with a Leica M10 available, when color counts I reach for this relic.  With 18Mp it has enough for me to enlarge to any size I like, and plenty of detail to salivate over. Just keep it to the lower ISO and you have an amazing tool to use.