The Leica Monochrom is my unicorn, my unattainable creature. This camera was recently announced and it comes at a very strange time in digital age of photography. I mean, any camera can do B&W, Sepia, Platinum, Green, Red, and oh yeah,  full blown color. So, why does a Leica build a camera that can only do Black and White with some gray garbage in between and sells it without a kit lens for $9000 dollars? I think they designed this camera specifically for me because they somehow knew that I would like it. And I do like that Leica, and I will enjoy the idea of the Monochrom for a very long time. You see, Black and White photography has a very special meaning to me. I used to believe that I would never want shoot with color film. Color used to be distracting to me and I felt that it was taking away the feeling and meaning in my photos. To me color photos used to be about the color in them instead of the  angles, lines and balance. B&W photos, if done correctly, can become an instant classic while Color photograph will have a very hard time getting there. I also believe that B&W photograph can have a simplicity of  values which allow us to have this unique balance and harmony. To sum it up, Leica Cameras are Amazing and their lenses are known to capture the most of that gray stuff in between. It’s just too bad most of these cameras will only see the light from behind a locked display case.

I took these photographs with my Leica M6 on Agfa pan 400 film, and printed them on Agfa VC111.
Can you spot the leading lines, gray values or the balance it produces?

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