I’m not a competitive person, but I do enjoy a good challenge, especially when it pushes me to grow and involves some kind of learning. Today, Leica has proposed a challenge: they want us to show, through our own eyes, what photography means. I love this kind of challenge, so I’ve decided to take part in it.
I’ve mentioned on several occasions that my relationship with photography has evolved over the years. It hasn’t always had the same meaning, the same value, or the same purpose in my life. When I was younger, it was all about learning, taking pictures to understand photography itself, to explore that world and grasp its basic principles. Later, it became a tool to document my life, especially important moments. In recent years, photography had been reduced to simply documenting my travels; the camera served as a kind of visual journal recording every step and place I visited.
Then, last year, I had a sudden impulse and bought a Leica M6 analog camera. Just months before, the idea would’ve seemed like madness, but I got so excited about it that I couldn’t resist. And it turned out to be the best “madness” of my life. Today, photography is a passion that helps me live more fully, and live better. It motivates me to leave the house, to hop in the car, and to get lost in places I’d otherwise never discover or explore. Since rediscovering photography, I’ve lived more intensely than I had in the previous ten years, and not a day goes by that I don’t feel grateful for everything it has brought into my life. Photographs of places like the one I’m sharing today wouldn’t exist without that deep shift in my priorities and the way I live. It is, by far, the best thing that has happened to me in recent years.
