Monk And His Camera Documentary

<p>I highly recommend an “enlightened” documentary currently on Netflix called “Monk with his camera: The life and journey of Nicholas Vreeland.” As a teenager from a prominent and wealthy family, he was tutored by Irving Penn and Richard Avedon no less. The film is mostly about Vreeland’s journey and history of his spiritual quest into Buddhism, the Tibetan variety. He made every attempt to rid himself of “attachments” yet retained his many and expensive film cameras ( he struggled with this). He was shown with many variations of Leicas, along with a Mamiyaflex and I believe a Sinar view camera. His gurus, including the Dalai Lama himself, encouraged his picture taking and in the end the selling of his photos helped build a new monastery in India.<br>

The film is largely about Vreeland and his struggles, maybe 20% is about his photography.</p>

<p>I just had to know, apparently he uses a Leica M3. </p>

<p>Daniel, thanks for the tip about the Netflix documentary. Hopefully I can watch it soon.</p>

<p>Daniel, thanks for sharing this. Sounds like something I would really like to see. </p>

<p>A friend who is a monk was challenged about his cameras and his musical instruments in this very context.<br>

His answer? "It's not what you have, it's what you do with it."</p>