While enjoying an evening down the YouTube photography rabbit hole, I came across this video of Japanese Ricoh GR photographer Satoru Watanabe, and now I can’t stop thinking about the GR IIIx.
In the clip, Watanabe says something that stuck with me: "Snapshots are the traces of everyday imagination". Then I read the blog he wrote to go with the video, and honestly, it left me thinking not just about cameras, but about why we take photographs.
Above: A YouTube video from GR Official featuring Satoru Watanabe
He talks about taking pictures without a purpose. About trying to capture things that can’t be put into words, moments of beauty or mood that don’t serve a function, they just are. A shadow between buildings. A stranger’s hand in the light. A reflection in motion. Nothing that would win an award, but that’s the point.
"Snapshots are photographs of the indescribable," he writes. "No one may understand it. But that’s okay."
That struck a chord with me because I don’t even own a GR III or IIIx, but now I want one. Not for the specs (though it has them), not for the reputation (which is cult-level), but because I want to practice what he’s talking about, and Ricoh's GR philosophy serves this approach.
We live in a time where every photo begs for a caption, a context, a reason. But what about photography that asks for none of that? What about photos you take just because something in you said 'shoot this', before your brain had time to catch up?
The GR series is compact, fast, and no-frills, a permission slip to feel your way through photography. To notice instead of plan. To stop overthinking and just shoot.
I keep telling myself I don’t need another camera. But this isn't about need. It’s about returning to that feeling of carrying a camera, just to carry one. Not to make content. Not to chase perfection. But to be available to light, to instinct, to whatever beauty slips through the cracks. To capture that same feeling of first setting out with a camera around my neck as a teenager.
I may wait for the upcoming Ricoh GR IV. I may not. But I know now what I want from an everyday camera. Something small. Something honest. Something I can keep with me to capture those moments I'm drawn to in the moment.
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