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Blind Magazine, MPB, and legendary American photographer Ralph Gibson<\/a> have teamed up for a very interesting giveaway. Photographers can enter to win Gibson\u2019s personal Leica M Typ 246 digital rangefinder camera, which he has used for the past 15 years. <\/p>\n From today, June 10, through July 10, photographers can enter the contest<\/a> entirely for free. One lucky winner will get Gibson\u2019s Leica M camera, his Summilux 50mm f\/1.4 lens, and a signed and number print from his celebrated 1996 photo series, Light Years.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than a contest, the initiative offers photography audiences the chance to hold apiece of photographic history, and a true collector\u2019s item: the camera Gibson used to shape his vision, as he continued refining the formal language that has defined his work for over five decade,\u201d Blind Magazine and MPB explain. \u201cThe camera became central to his exploration of tonal abstraction and compressed form.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhatever you do: try to be original. The real question, for somebody serious about photography, is: does the camera inform the camera how you see?\u201d Gibson says. <\/p>\n As part of the big giveaway, MPB and Blind Magazine interviewed<\/a> Gibson, who is now 87 years old. <\/p>\n \u201cI had spent fifty years in the darkroom, so I wasn\u2019t going to go digital. When Leica came to my studio to propose my signature Monochrom, I told them I wasn\u2019t interested. I was leaving for a big show in Australia, but they sent a prototype anyway,\u201d Gibson recalls about his eventual change to digital. \u201cWhile I was there, a man named Dave asked me about digital, and I gave him my prepared line: the history of photography has been etched into the emulsion of black-and-white film, and digital will resist the epic pursuit. Then I came home, and on my desk was a FedEx box from Germany, a Monochrom with my name on it.<\/p>\n \u201cComing out of my therapist\u2019s office, I saw a manhole cover, a bicycle came into the frame, and I shot. I looked at the back of the camera and thought: that could have been taken by me. I got my look on the very first touch of the finger. I decided to run with it, and I haven\u2019t loaded film since. It was my last great decision. The camera understood how I see, and I knew I had nothing to lose.\u201d <\/p>\n Gibson says he misses \u201cvery little\u201d about film photography these days. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat I kept from film is a way of relating to the materials. When I was young, the films were slow, and you mixed your developer from powder, which was a much more organic approach. I could imagine the light settling onto the emulsion, the silver grains swelling as I developed. We even had terms (sharpness, acutance) for the character of the edge between one thing and another, and a Monochrom sensor renders that edge differently than a full-color one. But if your whole picture depends on that single quality, you should stay with film. I kept the instinct: I still want the sensor to respond to me organically. The chemistry I let go.\u201d <\/p>\n Gibson hopes whoever wins his camera will embrace originality and chart their own creative journey. <\/p>\n \u201c[Young photographers] mistake technology for expression,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cIn my TED talk, I said that the same technology that made everyone a photographer makes everyone\u2019s photographs look the same\u2026 Technology is not in charge of my expression, and it shouldn\u2019t be in charge of theirs.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI owned this camera and used it while it was state of the art, so it carries a real stretch of the road I\u2019ve traveled. What I want to go with is simple: whatever the next person does, try to be original. I feel a responsibility to share what I know, because I\u2019ve worked a long time and the medium has been extraordinarily good to me. We added something personal to the prize, too: a print from 1996, signed and numbered on the back. So it\u2019s a meaningful camera leaving my hands and beginning another chapter with someone else, and that\u2019s exactly as it should be,\u201d the photographer says of the camera he is passing on. <\/p>\n The contest is open for entries now, and it is free to enter for all. Full terms and conditions are available on MPB\u2019s website<\/a>. <\/p>\n Image credits:<\/strong> MPB, Blind Magazine, Ralph Gibson <\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n