Davide Caniatti

If this article leaves you a bit confused it is because it is slightly different from the rest of this site. Despite the word “blog”, I have tried more or less carefully to not talk too much about myself inside. Not that the topic may not be interesting, but because it is something I already indulge in too often. So I would like to talk about what we have been doing with a dear friend of mine.

The Contax 645 80mm Planar is a legendary lens that needs no introduction. This lens alone is enough to justify the purchase of a Contax kit and is still used today by countless wedding guests. It is probably one of the most popular medium format lenses ever and one of the latest and most advanced to be produced. However, today shooting only in film can be challenging, especially in terms of costs.

2021 was a challenging year. Now that it comes to an end, it is right to give us a little treat. In this spirit, I tried my luck and bought myself a Contax 645. It is a bit of a gamble as these cameras are prone to problems and malfunctions. Unlike other past models, once broken there is no way to repair them. Or rather, there is a way to cannibalize other bodies to take the necessary parts, but it is never an actual repair, but at most a transplant.

Exactly one year ago I published the first article on this site. Many things have changed in the last year, for example, I finally got my master’s degree. At the same time, many things have remained the same, such as unfortunately the pandemic and the difficulties in traveling. What has not changed is also my passion for photography, but also the visual arts in general. Compatibly with my work, I decided to dedicate even more time to it, enrolling in a class at IED Milan.

In art history manuals it is often written how great artists have almost a sixth sense in interpreting and understanding the era in which they live better than all the others around them. There is a German term -Zeitgeist- which precisely means “spirit of the time” and knowing how to grasp it would be a supreme sign of the artist’s skill. If we were to find the spirit of our time, the things that best represent it, we could easily list the pandemic, the distance, the metaverse, the network, and the crisis.