Why Leica? Why Leica indeed. Here is an interesting video. One or two tiny parts aren't safe for the workplace. But it's beautifully done and homage to great work from the last century.
I would think the Kodak Brownie is the camera that got out of the lab and into ordinary people's hands for 'snapshots'.
Sure, Leica in the mid century brought us street photography, and took a lot of iconic images shown in the video (but not all). But there were other forces at work as well. And today, Leica is pretty much a niche camera.
A historical correction. The Leica went on sale in 1925, the rangefinder and interchangeable lenses were added in 1930 and the resulting cameras was immediately a commercial success. The connotation that Leicas emerged mid-century is twenty or so years later than reality. While the Brownie was little more than a pinhole camera the 35mm interchangeable lens, rangefinder Leica was a powerful tool that, according to photographic historians, changed the whole playing field for photographers.
There is no way to know what might have been if.......but if Leica didn't happen I wonder if or who would have popularized "miniature" photography. Although certainly some cameras using 35mm wide movie film did exist before Leica no one had brought it all together in such a compact and precision manner. For many years I wanted a Leica M but found out, when I finally got one I'm just not a RF type of person. Went back to a 35mm SLR. Still have the M4-2 with a 35 f2.5 CV lens sitting around. It taunts me about my lack of resolve to just use it every time I see it.
6 comments:
While I don't Leica, or know all the photos represented, that is very well done and it motivates me to get out and shoot more pictures :)
I would think the Kodak Brownie is the camera that got out of the lab and into ordinary people's hands for 'snapshots'.
Sure, Leica in the mid century brought us street photography, and took a lot of iconic images shown in the video (but not all). But there were other forces at work as well. And today, Leica is pretty much a niche camera.
A historical correction. The Leica went on sale in 1925, the rangefinder and interchangeable lenses were added in 1930 and the resulting cameras was immediately a commercial success. The connotation that Leicas emerged mid-century is twenty or so years later than reality. While the Brownie was little more than a pinhole camera the 35mm interchangeable lens, rangefinder Leica was a powerful tool that, according to photographic historians, changed the whole playing field for photographers.
There is no way to know what might have been if.......but if Leica didn't happen I wonder if or who would have popularized "miniature" photography. Although certainly some cameras using 35mm wide movie film did exist before Leica no one had brought it all together in such a compact and precision manner. For many years I wanted a Leica M but found out, when I finally got one I'm just not a RF type of person. Went back to a 35mm SLR. Still have the M4-2 with a 35 f2.5 CV lens sitting around. It taunts me about my lack of resolve to just use it every time I see it.
Yeah, I was thinking the middle third of the century (1920's through maybe the 1970's), not just the 1940's and 1950's.
Ah. Then I am corrected and you are absolutely correct.
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