I’ve never had people start talking to me because of the camera I was using. Never. Maybe all the other times it could’ve happened, I didn’t have the right camera with me. Or maybe I seemed unapproachable. Who knows. But it appears the people in Germany don’t need much to start a conversation.
I spent three days split between Dortmund, Bochum and Cologne, and had three interactions that started with people seeing my Minolta CLE. The first one was in Cologne Neumarkt, where a flea market vendor almost apologized for not having anything compatible to sell me.
The second was an hour later at Foto Lambertin, where one of the hosts kindly let me handle a black Leica M 240. We had a little chat about my camera, the lens I was using and the Leica. I left with a new camera strap and a roll of Ektar 100.
The last interaction was at the airport in Dortmund, where the security check agent noticed I had a film camera and asked me if I was ok to let it go through the scanner.
It’s as if these people have some sort of photography heritage running through their veins…
