A couple of days back someone on photo.net posted a link to an interview with some Zeiss rep talking about the market for the Zeiss Ikon. It’s exactly the kind of lyrical marketing gobbledygook you usually hear about high end mechanical gear, rangefinders in particular. One stand was their assesment of their potential market. Apparently one of their primary market segments is the largely untapped “photo poet” segment.

Photo poet? Is this some weird translation of a concept that sounds a lot less silly when said in French of German? Or is this a real thing? I’ve been jet lagged pretty bad for the last few days, so this pretty much slipped my mind until auspiciousdragon picked it up. A few days later this idea of photo poets stills seems pretty angsty, but I think I’ve got my mind around it now. I know exactly who these folks are. Heck, I think I might have been one.
At first I was conjuring up visions of new wave HCB’s with Leicas (er Ikons), pale blue scarves and $300 bags full of TriX and a cell phone with their trust fund managers on speed dial. I couldn’t quite pin down the mean age though, and this seemed a litte unfair to HCB, although from all appearances the guy did have a slightly silly, scarfy affectation to him. No, Photo Poets are those people that run really emo photoblogs featuring lots of urban landscapes, lens flare and found objects. The look can be either holga or rebel xt, but the result remains the same. Confusion, boredom and a lot of angst. You know the type. They can be pretty interesting sometimes, but after a while you hit saturation, and then it becomes like reading one too many stream of consciousness novels in a row. On the Road was fine, and maybe even Dharma Bums, but then you went on to read Vanity of Dulouz, and they all started to seem really silly and if not undercrafted at least under structured.

I’ll be the first to admit, I went through this phase, both literally, and I mean that literarily, and photographically. I read all the books, took plenty of moody photos of dumpsters, and I know the motivations by heart. The bad photo poet, and most are by definition bad, is enthusiastic about photography, usually fairly talented, but hasn’t really developed a vision yet. Their photoblogs might have a detectable style, but perspective and insight are lacking. You get a stream of consciousness, their consicousness rendered photographically. And after a while you realize that despite their talent, these folks lack the confidence in their work to craft it into a story. Without a story, the only thing left to hold your attention is the potential insight of their consciousness, which is a heavy burden for any artist to carry.

Zeiss might be on to something by marketing to this group. A nice hefty, metal, pricey camera with a pedigree makes a pretty good prop for the confidence. I know, I’ve leaned on one at times myself. I own one of the lenses Zeiss is hocking for the Ikon, and it’s pretty darn good. I’m betting the camera isn’t too shabby either. If nothing else it’s got a distinctly funky, retro look going for it. Can it turn bad photo poetry into something good, don’t know, but I wouldn’t bet on it.