[Leica] Leica Book

[profmason at yahoo.com (John Mason)]

Spent the early part of the evening watching the
shattering film Hotel Rwanda.  The first thing I did
when I got home was to put John Coltrane?s A Love
Supreme on the stereo.  The second thing that I did
was to pour a stiff drink.

As you know, Hotel Rwanda concerns the 1994 genocide
in which perhaps 800,000 men, women, and children lost
their lives.  The movie revolves around the actions
Paul Rusesabagina, an ordinary man who acted with
extraordinary courage to save the lives of over 1,000
people.  Always in the background is the catastrophic
moral failure of the international community to
intervene to stop the killing--to honor, in any way,
the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

When I left the theater, I glad to see students from
my university handing out leaflets, drawing
movie-goers? attention to the way in which the world
has, today, similarly failed to act to stop the
killing in Darfur, Sudan (which if not yet genocide is
surely on its way to being genocide).

All this naturally reminded me of the photos that
Nathan showed us last week, photos of a world that
disappeared.

Such was my frame of mind an hour or so ago, when I
opened the book that I plucked off a shelf in a used
bookstore the other day--Sports Shots: Dr. Paul
Wolff?s Leica, published in 1937 by William Morrow &
Co.  The event is the Berlin Olympics of 1936, and the
photos encompass nearly everything from the lighting
of the torch in Greece to the final ceremony.

The book is admirable in many ways.  The photography
is varied, creative, always good, and often stunning. 
Wolff contributes an essay describing the way the he
and his assistant managed the events and the equipment
that they used--from an Elmar 2.8cm to a Telyt 20cm.

But, of course, the 1936 Olympics was no ordinary
Olympics.

The very first image shows the great African-American
athlete Jesse Owens in the long jump.  Owens won four
gold medals, becoming, in the process, a symbol of
black pride and achievement.

The seventh image shows the Brandenburg Gate at night,
with banners hanging from it, illuminated by
spotlights.  On two of the banners are the Olympic
rings.  On three of them is the swastika.

The twelfth image shows the multitudes in Olympic
stadium turning toward the Olympic flame and raising
their arms in the Nazi salute.

The thirteenth image show Spiridon Luis, the 1896
marathon winner, presenting an olive branch to Adolph
Hitler.

I had to close the book for a minute.

In 1936 nobody could have imaged what was to come.  In
2005 we know what?s happening in Darfur.  I have to
ask myself what I?m doing about it.  I?ve written
letters to my president, my senators, and my
congressmen.  I?ve spoken at a teach-in.  And now I?m
haranguing you.

--John

(BTW, I have no reason to believe that Paul Wolff was
a Nazi, an anti-Semite, or a racist.  In fact, among
the photos in the book are very respectful photos of
Asians and Africans and one of Jesse Owens and the
German long-jumper Luz Long, sharing what seems to be
a moment of genuine friendship.)

J Mason
Charlottesville, Virginia



                
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