The Hasselblad Way

As the readers of this blog know, I seldom talk about gear because since the very first post on this blog I made a point of stay focused on (shooting) pictures instead of musing about pointless technicalities such as Camera A vs Camera B ISO performance, Lens X vs Lens Y sharpness, APS-C vs Full Frame and so on, but today I do an exception because of an old Hasselbld 500 C/M that I have been given to try (and that probably will buy.)

There is only one way to shoot with a Hasselblad: following its rule. The film has to be loaded in a certain way, the magazine locked exactly as the manual says, ditto for arming the shutter and setting the focus. It might seems odd and complicated but, at the end of the day, becoming a Hasselblad-abiding photographer is a liberating experience. Once a few rules are learnt, the only thing that lasts is take pictures, nothing else. So what initially seems frustrating (f&%k, I forgot to fully rewind the roll by turning the crank, s£$t, I didn’t properly aligned the film with the arrow in the magazine…) is actually liberating. Less time spent fiddling with options, more time spent waiting for “the Moment”.

That’s the Hasselblad Way.