Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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