Great series there Lili! Really enjoyed it.
I'm with you 100%. Actually as deceiving as appearances might be I do
try and exercise photography rather than the pursuit of photographic equipment. On this count, on another site, I started a challenge to help buck gear acquisition syndrome, called "Single in September". Here folks needed to take and post a photo every day for an entire month (September in it's first iteration) with the one lens and body. The exercise was to help people bond with that one lens and body...as well as bond photographers together - that's how me and
Defektive met and became fast friends. It garnered a decent following and did help us all....for a while.
So, yes, photography should all be about the relationship between the photographer and the world around them. The gear is just the tool to aid their exploration and expression. But I still hold fast to the fact that most of us get frustrated and rather than direct it inward, focus it on the tools we use. Then you enter the loop of "I could take photos as good as HCB (or Trent Parke for me nowadays
) if only I had what HCB had!". Of course, we usually fall short of admitting that it's not the Leicas that HCB "had", but a keen, sympathetic well-trained eye....not to mention his appreciation of geometry and sense of discipline
.
So we are peas in a pod!