[Leica] leica necrology

[Guy Bennett <guybnt@idt.net>]

:

i must admit i read the graveyard visit description with a smile on my
face. on the one hand, it seems so absurd - visiting the graves of the
folks who made your camera! on the other, it fits into a model of what i
suppose we could call 'cultural veneration' - the wish to honor those dead
we are not related to by blood but by other bonds, which are frequently of
a cultural nature. a highlight from a 1989 trip i made to prague was a
visit to the old jewish cemetary to see kafka's grave - a strangely moving
experience.

since then, i'm almost embarrassed to admit that i've spent a hell of a lot
of time in cemetaries in europe, particularly in paris where they are truly
fascinating. in one site (père lachaise) for example, you've got the final
resting place of everybody from la fontaine to jim morrison, with an
equally diverse crowd of visitors most of whom that i've encountered are
not tourists. i'll be returning there again this year, to practice what you
could term necro-photography, i.e., hunting down the elusive dead and
snappin' their pictures before they get away, or come after me and grab my
leica!

what ho!

guy