[Leica] Robert Capa

[Carl Socolow <csocolow@microserve.net>]

Dear LUG,

I had the pleasure of visiting the Robert Capa retrospective at the
International Center of Photography in New York this past weekend. Once
again I am reminded what a powerful machine these Leicas can be when
properly wielded in the hands of a person of vision, skill and
sensitivity. Wow! Forget sharpness. Forget Bokeh. Forget who made what
glass. The intimacy these machines provided Capa in portraying the world
around him- a world in constant tumult, despair, epiphany and hope- is
absolutely amazing. You, the viewer, are right there, a participant in
history, in the whole human drama. Would that my own images could
achieve even half that power. But after seeing this exhibit, which runs
until June 7, I must say that I came away richer for the experience and
even more inspired to USE my Leica machines to help portray the times we
live in hopefully with some of the same complexity, compassion and
sensitivity that this man did with his own. I urge anyone who has the
opportunity to see the show and, more important, to make images with
meaning and strength. 

It also reminded me of one of my fellow photographers I used to work
with on our daily paper. He died a couple years ago from colon cancer
that had reached his liver. When I first started there at my all knowing
age of 24 he scared the hell out of me. And he would constantly hit me
with the following question whenever I would print one of my esoteric
photos. "What does it mean?" He would ask. He turned me onto D.D. Duncan
and Robert Frank. Well, Capa's work was so full of meaning I could not
escape the memory of my mentor and his question. And it rings in my
brain everytime the camera approaches my eye.
- -- 
Carl Socolow

Sometimes the wrong thing is exactly the thing you should do.