Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:54 PM 9/10/99 -0400, Paul Schiemer wrote: >Leica played an important part in the development of the 'technology' of >photojournalism, but it was not the progenitor as you claim. Leica came before the Photo magazines in Britain (that Eisenstandt for one got his start in) and made possible the kind of photography that made those magazines sing. Then in Britain, and finally LIFE in the U.S. All of the work wasn't done with Leicas, but the profession as we know it today was created by the possibilities the Leica gave the world that were simply not possible with larger format cameras. This is basic photojournalism history. I did a lot of research on the technology of photojournalism while in grad. school. It might yet be a chapter in a textbook some day, so I'm told. But if you don't understand what I'm saying, it won't do me much good to keep saying it. You are looking at black and white. A picture in a paper means photojournalism, you say. It's not black and white. Photojournalism can use larger formats for sure. Portraits, other scenes that are more calm, meditative, technical. But... what I'm saying is photojournalism is much more than pictures in print. It's impact in print. It's story telling with a camera that frees photographer from the constraints of cameras and films that slow them down. That cause them to pose pictures, to recreate, to work off a tripod. To use a big flash. Those kinds of things were the tools of the trade until the Leica came along. And the pictures changed. They were more dynamic, more powerful, more "real." And the profession will never be the same. That's the heritage of the Leica. No other camera can lay claim to that. All they can do is say "me too!" I could give a tinkers damn about pictures being printed. You cannot make the pictures that Andre Kertesz, HCB, Gene Smith, Gary Winogrand, Sebastiao Salgado are famous for with an 8x10 camera. Or a 4x5 speed graphic, or even a Hasselblad. It's not practical, or in many cases possible. Leica started that era of photojournalism, which is essentially unchanged in spirit to this day, except it's often in color these days. Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch You're only young once; you can be immature f'ever