German freelance photographer Samuel Lintaro Hopf made thus humorous 8-minute video that features a whole bunch of things you may hear coming out of a Leica photographer’s mouth.
Founded as Ernst Leitz Wetzlar in 1869 by Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, Germany, Leica is an iconic camera company that has produced cameras popular among photojournalists, documentary photographers, and street photographers over the past century.
Some of the most iconic photos in history were shot on a Leica, including The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa in 1936, V-J Day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1945, Raising a Flag over the Reichstag by Yevgeny Khaldei in 1945, James Dean in Times Square by Dennis Stock in 1955, Guerrillero Heroico by Alberto Korda in 1960, and The Terror of War by Nick Ut in 1972.
Leica cameras and lenses have always been on the pricier end of the camera market, and the company has in recent years embraced a reputation of its products being collector items and luxury goods, as seen in the steady stream of ultra-expensive and ultra-limited editions being announced as well as the company’s expansion into things like luxury watches.
It’s no wonder then that these days Leica photographers have the unfortunate stigma of being snobby and treating their equipment more as a status symbol than as a workhorse tool for photography.
Here’s a sampling of the quotes heard in Hopf’s video above:
“This is not a camera — this is a fine instrument.”
“I don’t think you have a real camera until you have a Leica. Did I mention I shoot Leica?”
“Did you hear that? Me neither. That’s how quiet a Leica is.”
“I could never go back to anything else than Leica. I’m allergic to plastic.”
“There’s nothing like the Leica look. It’s really unique and there’s nothing like it out there.”
Stigmas and stereotypes are often grounded in some amount of truth — Leica Rumors calls this parody “sad but true” — but Hopf wants you to know that the video was purely lighthearted satire poking fun at Leica culture.
“Obviously this was not a serious video — hopefully you didn’t get triggered,” Hopf states at the end. “All the Leica people I know are actually very normal people, but there are always these stereotypes and it’s just fun to make fun of them.”
