[Leica] Herbert Keppler

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

> http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/4968/in-memoriam
> Sad to hear.
> All the best!
> Raimo K
> Personal photography homepage at:
> http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~raikorho
> 
When I was 13 in 1965 in Northfield Illinois I bought my first Popular and
Modern Photography magazines at the new Northfield drugstore and started
reading them from cover to cover barely understanding anything these
columnists wrote thinking someday I'd understand maybe half of it and
another day possibly most of all of it. That happened. Also what happened
was  I was able to go into a camera store and buy something and not get
kicked out as I had money in my wallet in my back pocket. Two dreams coming
true. 
I knew which stirring rod to buy and I had the money to buy it.
One of these columnists was of course Herbert Keppler.
Cora Wright Kennedy. Sint. Bill Pierce. Norman Goldberg (father of Don).
Norman Rothschild. Bob Schwalberg,  John Durniak. Mason Resnick  And of
course Jason Schneider who wrote this article
http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~raikorho
and ran Pop Photo in the 80's and 90's and whom I got a chance to hang out a
little bit with at Photokina 2006 and at Wetzlar with the LHSA group and
watch in action.  And who now lives possibly only a few blocks away on the
upper west side of this sunny island of Manhattan.

In the past years I've kept up with Keppler by reading his Blog
"Speaking Frankly" always the voice of reason amidst a sea of troubled
baloney artists.
Notice he's wearing a Tilley hat:
http://keppler.popphoto.com/
Which with decorations was always his signature or as far back as I can
remember  which was as I said 1965 which was when large cold blooded beasts
roamed the earth.
I always wanted to meet him.

Also Mason Resnick again wrote one here:
http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=NewsDesk_Internal&article_num=010607-1

My feeling was he was not just into the gear and the gadgets and the gizmos;
He was also into the prints.  Slides. The entire image making process.
I remember when both Modern and Pop had center sections printed in Gravure;
Which had better tonality the the prints coming out of my basement darkroom.
And taught me what my work could look like.
It started with Modern.
Pop followed.
Yep.

By the way, an interesting discussion on
Pop & or vs. Modern
& their merge.
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00LFvG



Mark William Rabiner
markrabiner.com