Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/01/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Koudelka, Josef: ėGYPSIES.î Koudelka is another of the classic Leica >photographers whose work needs no introduction to Leica users >everywhere. First edition, 1975. Fine in complete dust jacket with some >mended tears. $125 and other titles on the list........... Yikes! And how much is my signed first edition worth? Guess I ought to put it in an archival bag and finish wearing out my paperback copy instead! This work has held up really well over the last thirty years, hasn't it? For any new(ish) Leica M users who aren't familiar with Josef K.'s work, who do need an introduction, GYPSIES may be a revelation; it's the antithesis of the more analytical (French?) approach. Empty shadows, big grain, no acutance, no bokay - b+w the way the good lord intended it: EMOTIONAL (just kidding, partly). (Interesting technical side note: GYPSIES was finished at exactly the same time as DD Duncan's razor-sharp, technically, optically awesome SELF-PORTRAIT: USA. Two poles of the b+w spectrum, wouldn't you say?) Tony Ray-Jones ought to be of interest to 28mm-loving street photographers, too. Quirky (and influential, as it turned out) work for that time (early 1970s). But again, like Josef, the Leica wasn't a tool for producing awesome resolution - more likely a compact platform for that nifty viewfinder (not to presume why they used Leicas, just guessing based on the images). Thanks for the trip down memory lane! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html