The Human Scale Lens

For me, the best thing about the Fifty is the perspective. The wonderful optical qualities of normal primes come as a bonus. The world at 50 mm is in some indefinable way close to the world as we see it. The lens takes in a scene close to what a person can see at any time without moving his head. Perspective appears natural, verticals stay under control, and there is a very strong impression of photographing the world in some sense "as it really is."

"Dialogue," (Helsinki, 2003)

I've always liked best those photos that capture something I saw. For me, photography is about seeing more than about creating pictures. The Fifty is the human-scale lens. There's something about a good picture shot at 50 that pulls the viewer into the scene, as if he were looking through the paper or screen into the scene the photographer saw. Most of my pictures I like most are 50's, and I hope some of them have this quality.

"Shy," (Helsinki, 2003)

It is this quality of "realism" that makes the Fifty such a good liar. The perspective claims that this really happened. However, there's nothing inherent to the focal length that prevents engineering a scene -- by setting it up, like Cartier-Bresson with some of his famous kiss scenes, by selective framing, or any number of additional photographic devices.