Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/18

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Subject: [Leica] Photographer of the Century
From: Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de (Hans-Peter.Lammerich)
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 19:11:34 +0100

Hello,

I throw in a name that yet has not appeared: Dr. Erich Salomon. Salomon can be 
considered as the early master of availabel light and candid photography. In the 
1920s and 1930s he produced an incredible collection of pictorial documents of 
history. He was the first prominent user of the lengendary Ermanox camera, with 
its sensational f1:2.0 lens. On the downside, the 4.6x6cm GLASS negatives 
converted the Ermanox to a single shot camera. But at that time it was only way 
to use reasonable fast emulsion. Even then indoor shots under available light 
required relatively long exposure times of up to one second. Salomon, however, 
developed a capabilty to capture the right moment and even motion. He noticed 
that even fast moving subjects like cnductors at a concert, some come to rest 
which is right moment to make the one second exposure.

In addition to his talent in mastering the technical problem, he was smart in 
getting to forbidden places or to in contructing gizmos to hide his camera. The 
anecdote I like the most dates from the late 1920s. Salomon intended cover the 
first speech of the newly elected, social-democratic chancellor Heinrich 
Mueller. He got a permission from the Reichstag's president Loebe, but the 
visitors' seats were already occupied, no good view at all. So he asked an 
attendant to find an empty seat for him, preferably from an absent or sick 
Reichtag member. No way. So the attendant proposed to use chancellor Mueller's 
own seat which of course would be empty during his speech and, even more 
important, was only 4.5m away from the speaker's booth. Salomon indeed managed 
to sneak in moments after Mueller started and sat down, assuming that nobody 
would dare to interrupt the speach to kick him out. To avoid any disturbance, he 
remained seated as the only non-member among the other Reichstag member 
throughout the speach and of course managed to make some interesting shots.

On the other hand, Salomon's way of candid photography never digged into an 
individuals private life. He covered public events only and generally avoided to 
disturb the events he was covering. Nowadays this would be a nice contrast to 
the crowds of press photographers, toting noisy, motorised cameras and flashes 
which usually are kicked out before the interesting part of a conference starts 
or kept far away, hardly with chance to "catch" a natural image of a situation 
or an individual.

Hans-Peter