[Leica] Women of the world

["Hans Pahlen" <hans@komvux.skola.mark.se>]

Yesterday I went to a photographic exhibition, called 'Women of the world'.
The (female) photographer was Ulla Lemberg, who had worked for 10 years with
this project. Then final printing took another 2 years.
The interesting thing with Ulla, is that ALL pictures were taken with a
short tele, or a 80-200 zoom (She used to be a press photographer at
'Aftonbladet' 1970-1985).
Until I saw this exhibition, I had a firm belief that you had to go close
with short lenses, in order to get strong pictures with presence. Now, I am
reconsidering this, as I have seen the power of frame filling portraits, and
the way a long lens can isolate objects from the background. 'Street
photography' CAN be done with short teles, and maybe this is the only way in
countries like India, Iraque, Vietnam or places where you don't understand
the language.
In short, a very powerful exhibition, that shook my belief in the
rangefinder camera as the tool par excellence for this type of photography.
Ulla has convinced me that a SLR with short tele can be a strong alternative
to a M with shorter lenses. Her technique is to 'meet people' by taking
contact, and then take the pictures. This creates presence also with longer
lenses, as the object will look into the camera, also when the photographer
backs up to compose the final picture. And wow, those close distance
frame-filling face portraits of old women so sharp that eyebrews could be
counted! Unfortunately none of these pictures are published on the web.
/Hans