press release 100 years of leica photography

Transcription

PRESS
RELEASE
100 YEARS OF LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, MARCH 2015
EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 YEARS OF LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY
March 13 – May 31, 2015
Opening: Thursday, March 12, 2015, 7 pm
Press preview: Thursday, March 12, 2015, 13 pm
From March 13 to May 31, 2015 the exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years of Leica
Photography” illuminates various aspects of 35mm photography, from journalistic strategies to
documentary approaches and artistic positions. Among the artists whose work will be shown at
Fotografie Forum Frankfurt across two floors are Nobuyoshi Araki, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Bruno
Barbey, René Burri, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, William
Eggleston, Ralph Gibson, F.C. Gundlach, Elisabeth Hase, Fred Herzog, Barbara Klemm, Herbert
List, Paula Luttringer, Susan Meiselas, Ulrich Mack, Joel Meyerowitz, Paolo Roversi, Jeanloup
Sieff, Christer Strömholm, Kai Wiedenhöfer, Paul Wolff and Tom Wood.
More than 200 photographs, supplemented by documentary material, including journals,
magazines, books, advertisements, brochures, and camera prototypes, will recount the history of
35mm photography from its beginnings to the present day. The exhibition, which is curated by
Hans-Michael Koetzle, follows the course of technological change and photographic history.
A camera for the new, high-speed era
According to an entry in the workshop records, Oskar Barnack, who worked as an industrial
designer at Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, completed the first functional model of a small-format camera
for 35mm cinema film by March 1914 at the latest. The introduction of the Leica (a combination
of »Leitz« and »Camera«) which was delayed until 1925 due to the war, was not merely the
invention of a new camera. The small, reliable and always-ready-to-go Leica, equipped with a highperformance lens specially engineered by Max Berek, marked a paradigm shift in photography.
Not only did it offer amateur photographers, newcomers and emancipated women greater access
to photography; the Leica, which could be easily carried in a coat pocket, also became a
ubiquitous part of everyday life. The comparatively affordable small-format camera stimulated
photographic experimentation and opened up new perspectives. In general, visual strategies for
representing the world became more innovative, bold and dynamic. Without question, the Leica
developed by Oskar Barnack and introduced by Ernst Leitz II in 1924 was something like
photography’s answer to the phenomenological needs of a new, high-speed era.
Icons of Photography and New Perspectives
The exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years of Leica Photography” offers a comprehensive
overview of the change in photography brought about by the invention and introduction of the
Leica. Rather than isolating the history of the camera or considering it for its own sake, it will
examine the visual revolution sparked by the technological innovation of the Leica. The exhibition
will take an art- and cultural-historical perspective in pursuit of the question of how the
photographic gaze changed as a result of the Leica and the small-format picture, and what
effects the miniaturization of photography had on the work of amateurs, artists and
PRESS CONTACT Andrea Horvay E-MAIL presse@fffrankfurt.org MOBILE +49 (0)17620641531
TRÄGER Förderkreis Fotografie Forum Frankfurt e.V. Braubachstraße 30-32, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
FON +49 (0) 69 29 17 26 FAX +49 (0) 69 28 639 E  -  MAIL contact@fffrankfurt.org www.fffrankfurt.org
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photo-journalists. It will also seek to determine what new subjects the camera addressed with its
wide range of interchangeable lenses, and how these subjects were seen in a new light: a new
way of perceiving the world through the Leica viewfinder. As today the digital smartphone, the
Leica camera revolutionized the way we deal with the world and how we perceive it.
Among the featured photographers are those who are internationally known for their work with
Leica cameras as well as amateurs and artists who have not yet been widely associated with
35mm photography, including socio-critical artist George Grosz and legendary Art Director
Mehemed Fehmy Agha. Special sections are devoted to the avant-garde photography of the 20s
and 30s, the Subjective Photography around 1950, the "Photographie Humaniste" in postwar
France, Spanish and Japanese photography, the New Color Photography as well as fashion and
contemporary photographers as auteurs.
“EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years of Leica Photography” at Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
This exhibition was first shown at the House of Photography at Deichtorhallen Hamburg and it is a
collaboration of the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, the Curator Hans-Michael Koetzle and Leica
Camera AG, who extensively opened its archive for this exhibition as never before. After its
premiere in Hamburg in 2014, and the show at Fotografie Forum Frankfurt this exhibition will
travel to Berlin, Vienna and Munich.
Publication
Accompanying the exhibition, a comprehensive book with many illustrations and essays by HansMichael Koetzle. Texts by Alejandro Castellote, Michael Ebert, Peter Hamilton, Anton Holzer,
Thomas Honickel, Hans-Michael Koetzle, Franziska Mecklenburg, Rebekka Reuter, Ulf Richter,
Christoph Schaden, Emília Tavares, Enrica Viganò, Bernd Weise and Thomas Wiegand have been
published at Kehrer Verlag, edited by Hans-Michael Koetzle. It is available in hardcover with 576
pages and 1.200 illustrations for 98 Euro.
Opening
The exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years Of Leica Photography” will open on Thursday, March
12, 2015, at 7pm. Opening speakers are Celina Lunsford, Artistic Director at Fotografie Forum
Frankfurt; Thomas Duhnkrack, Member of the Board, Förderkreis Fotografie Forum Frankfurt; Dr.
Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Leica Camera AG; Hans-Michael Koetzle,
curator of the exhibition.
Special Events
Friday, March 13, 2015, 12 and 3 pm
Curator tours with Hans-Michael Koetzle
The tour will be held in German.
More curator tours on Sunday, April 19, 3 pm; Saturday, April 25, 12 and 3 pm; Sunday, April 26,
12 pm; Friday, May 29, 12 and 3 pm; Saturday, May 30, 12 and 3 pm.
Guided tours in English and French on request.
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PRESS
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Saturday, March 14, 2015, 6 pm
Lecture »Storytelling with Pictures«
Jane Evelyn Atwood, US/FR, photographer of the exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN!”
Saturday/Sunday, March 14/15, 2015, 10 am–6 pm
Workshop »Storytelling with Pictures«
Jane Evelyn Atwood, US/FR, photographer of the exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN!”
Thursday, March 26, 2015, 6 pm
Lecture »EYES WIDE OPEN«
Hans-Michael Koetzle, curator of the LEICA exhibition, Munich
Venue: Leica Galerie Frankfurt, Grosser Hirschgraben 15, Frankfurt am Main
Friday, April 17, 2015, 6 pm
Lecture »Nolens Volens«
Paula Luttringer, AR/FR, photographer of the exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN!”
Saturday/Sunday, April 18/19, 2015, 10 am–6 pm
Workshop »art, MeMory, and reCovery«
Paula Luttringer, AR/FR, photographer of the exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN!”
Guided tours through the exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years Of Leica Photography” every
Wednesday, 6 pm.
Venue
Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
Braubachstraße 30–32, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
Phone +49 (0) 69 29 17 26, Fax +49 (0) 69 28 63 9
E-mail: contact@fffrankfurt.org
www.fffrankfurt.org
Opening hours during the exhibition:
Tuesday–Sunday: 11 am–6 pm, Wednesday: 11 am–8 pm, Monday closed.
Admission fee for “EYES WIDE OPEN”: 8 € (reduced: 4 €)
For more information about the exhibition and press images, please contact Andrea Horvay by
phone +49 (0) 69 29 17 26 or by email at presse@fffrankfurt.org.
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LIST OF ARTISTS
Mehemed Fehmy Agha
Nobuyoshi Araki
Bernd Arnold
Jane Evelyn Atwood
Ellen Auerbach
Ragnar Axelsson
Julia Baier
Micha Bar-Am
Bruno Barbey
Oskar Barnack
Wilfried Bauer
Horst H. Baumann
Gianni Berengo Gardin
Ferenc Berko
Ilse Bing
Werner Bischof
Edouard Boubat
John Bulmer
René Burri
Robert Capa
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Hermann Claasen
Mark Cohen
Joan Colom i Altemir
Peter Cornelius
Bruce Davidson
Raymond Depardon
Dr. Walthari Dietz
Claude Dityvon
David Douglas Duncan
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Mitch Epstein
Elliott Erwitt
Horst Faas
François Fontaine
Leonard Freed
Gisèle Freund
Bruce Gilden
Michael von Graffenried
René Groebli
George Grosz
Ara Güler
F.C. Gundlach
Arvid Gutschow
Robert Häusser
Hiroshi Hamaya
Elisabeth Hase
Heinrich Heidersberger
Keld Helmer-Petersen
Walter Henisch
Fred Herzog
Thomas Hoepker
Andrea Hoyer
Jing Huang
Franz Hubmann
Pierre Jamet
Eva Kemlein
Barbara Klemm
Viktor Kolár
Alberto Korda
Josef Koudelka
Kineo Kuwabara
Sergio Larrain
Robert Lebeck
Saul Leiter
Guy Le Querrec
Erich Lessing
Paula Luttringer
Ulrich Mack
Constantine Manos
Ramón Masats
Will McBride
Rudi Meisel
Susan Meiselas
Jeff Mermelstein
Bertrand Meunier
Joel Meyerowitz
Inge Morath
Gabriele Nothhelfer
Helmut Nothhelfer
Paulo Nozolino
Kosuke Okahara
Leopoldo Pómes
Richard Peter
René-Jacques
Marc Riboud
George Rodger
Alexander Rodtschenko
Paolo Roversi
Lothar Rübelt
Sebastião (Ribeiro) Salgado
Dr. Erich Salomon
Toni Schneiders
Tomio Seike
Jeanloup Sieff
Jeffrey Silverthorne
Hans W.(olfgang) Silvester
Christian Skrein
Klavdij Sluban
W. (illiam) Eugene Smith
Liesel Springmann
Anton Stankowski
Louis Stettner
Dennis Stock
Christer Strömholm
Keiichi Tahara
Yutaka Takanashi
Ricard Terré
Alfred Tritschler
Gaël Turine
Umbo.
Nick Út
Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt
Sabine Weiss
Kai Wiedenhöfer
Alain Willaume
Paul (Heinrich August) Wolff
Tom Wood
Claire Yaffa
Herbie Yamaguchi
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THEMES
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE GAZE – 100 YEARS OF LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY
According to a note in the workshop records, by March 1914 at the latest, Oskar Barnack, who
worked as head of the research and development department at Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, completed
the first functional model of a small-format camera for 35 mm cinema film. This wasn’t just another
small camera. The introduction of the Leica ( a combination of “Leitz” and “Camera” ), which was
delayed until 1925 due to the war, marked a paradigm shift in photography. Not only did it offer
amateur photographers, newcomers and emancipated women a more accessible way to discover
photography; the Leica with its retractable Elmar ( 3.5 /50 mm ), which could be easily carried in a
coat pocket, also made photography a ubiquitous part of everyday life. The Leica was small,
lightweight, discreet – a different kind of tool that even provoked a new way of seeing. In sum, it
initiated a new pictorial culture with its “ideal” aspect ratio of 2 : 3 defined by Oskar Barnack, the
ability to take 36 photographs in quick succession, a viewfinder at eye level and a camera that
became an organic part of the photographer: always at hand and ready to capture spontaneous
occurrences.
For the first time, the exhibition “EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years of Leica Photography” makes a wideranging attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the upheaval in photography provoked by
the invention and introduction of the Leica. It aims not so much to recount the history of camera
technology, but to focus on the visual revolution triggered by the Leica. It asks the question from an
art- and cultural-historical perspective of how photographic seeing changed due to the Leica and
the small-format picture. What new subjects did the camera address, and how were these subjects
seen in a new way? What effects has the miniaturization of photography had on the work of
amateurs, artists and photojournalists today? Above all, how did the pictorial language and with it
our perception of the world change? The Leica corresponded with the spirit of the time – a fastpaced, high-speed time. What’s more, it was beautifully designed. Contemporary critics described it
as a ‘gem.’ Every Leica photographer had a deep relationship with his or her camera, chief among
them Henri Cartier-Bresson, the ‘eye of the century.’ He once stated that he never could give up his
Leica: “Every attempt in a different direction brought me back to it. I’m not saying that this has to
be the case for someone else. It’s simply the only camera for me.” Without a doubt, the Leica was
and remains just as much a technical masterpiece as an object of desire, or even fetishism. Above
all, it is a tool for creating pictures: great pictures, surprising pictures, shocking, astonishing, simply
beautiful or visually complex pictures. Pictures that document, inform, irritate, emotionalize – in
any case, pictures without which our visual culture would be decidedly poorer.
This exhibition was curated by Hans-Michael Koetzle, München. The accompanying book was
published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg.
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MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF THE LEICA
1849 Carl Kellner (1826–1855) opened an optical institute in Wetzlar, Kellners Optische
Werkstätte, which later became the Optische Werke Ernst Leitz Wetzlar.
1864 Ernst Leitz I (1843–1920) was hired as a mechanic journeyman at the company.
His early duties consisted mainly of streamlining the microscope production.
1865 Ernst Leitz I became a partner in the workshop.
1869 Ernst Leitz I became the sole proprietor. His company was renamed the Optisches Institut
von Ernst Leitz.
1889 Ernst Leitz II (1871–1956) joined his father’s company as a trainee.
1900 After becoming the largest microscope manufacturer, in this year Leitz produced 4,000
microscopes with 400 employees.
1914 Oskar Barnack (1879–1936), who had worked at Leitz as a precision mechanic since 1911,
completed his first “Lilliputian camera” for cinema film.
1924 Against the background of the precarious economic situation, Ernst Leitz II decided to massproduce what was first known as the “Barnack camera.”
1925 The first Leica, the Model A, was presented in March at the spring exhibition in Leipzig. Sales
of the mass-produced cameras surpassed all expectations and doubled annually until 1929. While
in 1925 some 900 units were manufactured, in 1929 more than 16,000 cameras left the factory.
1930 The Leica I Model C was introduced with the ability to accommodate interchangeable lenses.
The possibility of various focal lengths proved to be crucial to the camera’s later success.
1932 With the Leica II (featuring a coupled rangefinder), Oskar Barnack succeeded in making yet
another important step in the camera’s development. In the same year, the Dresden-based
company Zeiss-Ikon AG announced the Contax I, its answer to the challenger from Wetzlar.
1937 Max Berek (1886–1949) received the Grand Prix at the Paris World’s Fair for his
achievements in the construction of Leica lenses.
1943 The Leica was designated non-essential to the war. In January 1944 production was
stopped.
1945 Germany offered its unconditional surrender. The Americans occupied the factory. With the
help of the Americans, the machines, which had been removed in 1943 to safeguard them from
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the bombings, were brought back to Wetzlar. In late June, the factory once again had 1,569
employees.
1950 The Leica IIIf was the first Leica to feature integrated flash synchronization. By this time, the
company had 4,377 employees.
1952 A Summarit 1:1.5/50 mm was the one-millionth lens to leave the factory.
1954 The Leica M3, based on a completely new camera construction, was presented in the spring
at the Photokina exhibition in Cologne. The camera featured a combined viewfinder and
rangefinder, automatic parallax compensation, framelines for 50, 90 and 135 mm focal lengths
and a bayonet lens mount. It remains the reference for all Leica M models produced to this day.
1958 The Leica M2 was introduced, featuring framelines for the three most popular Leica lenses
with 35, 50 und 90 mm focal lengths. It went on to become the preferred camera for
photojournalism in the 1960s.
1984 The Leica M6 with TTL manual light metering and an LED display in the viewfinder was
introduced. The model led a renaissance of the Leica rangefinder system in the photography
market.
1986 To better consolidate its activities in photography, the Leitz photography division was spun
off as Leica GmbH.
1988 With 463 employees, Leica GmbH began its work in Solms, some ten kilometers from
Wetzlar.
1996 After being renamed Leica Camera GmbH in 1990, the company became a publicly traded
corporation, Leica Camera AG.
2005 Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, co-owner of ACM Projektentwicklung GmbH, joined Leica Camera AG
and gradually purchased a majority share in the company.
2006 The Leica M8 was introduced as the first digital rangefinder camera.
2009 The Leica M9, the first digital rangefinder camera with a full-frame sensor, was introduced.
2014 On the 100th anniversary of the Leica, the new Leica Camera AG factory building designed
by Gruber + Kleine-Kraneburg was dedicated in Wetzlar.
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EXHIBITION
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LEICA AND THE NEUES SEHEN
Even if by far not everything that we associate with avant-garde photography today was related to
the small-format camera: any discussion of the Neues Sehen movement or modernist photography
must include the Leica. The Leica was not just a new type of camera; as a decidedly miniature,
discrete, well-conceived, functional and capable camera system, it revolutionized photographic
practice and thus paved the way for a new universe of pictures. Thanks to the Leica, photography
became more dynamic in two regards. Not only did the always-ready Leica make possible—or
rather, provoke—a new way of looking at a world that was always changing; the camera itself
became part of the movement, part of a restlessness brought about in large part by new and faster
modes of transportation.
Thanks to the lightweight, always-ready Leica, pictures from airplanes, airships, skyscrapers and
trains became an integral part of a new pictorial grammar, as did pictures taken in quick
succession or on a whim. With the Leica at the ready, people were no longer distanced observers of
the world, but part of the events. This resulted in a visual universe that broke many of the
established rules, and thus broadened people’s perspective on a new era.
PHOTOJOURNALISM, 1925–1935
Of course, newsworthy pictures existed long before the Leica. And yet, the Leica revolutionized
photojournalism. The Leica was small, comparatively light at around 400 g and, thanks to its
retractable Elmar, always at the ready. It was unobtrusive. And it made it possible to take
photographs in quick succession, which was a boon to the nascent genre of reportage. What’s
more, from 1930 onward, interchangeable lenses made it possible to choose from a wide range of
framing possibilities without the need to change position.
Intellectual newcomers to photography in particular, such as Walter Bosshard, Gisèle Freund, Felix
H. Man and Tim Gidal, recognized the advantages of the Leica—particularly while traveling, when
only a few rolls of compact and lightweight film were needed to cover one’s photographic needs.
Among those who explored the world with the Leica were Lotte Jacobi in Russia, Ella Maillard in
East Asia and Ré Soupault in Tunisia. Erich Salomon took the camera with him to the United States
for the first time in 1930. In the Spanish Civil War, the Leica became an indispensable tool to Henri
Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and Robert Capa.
It was not so much technical brilliance, high resolution or finesse in details that characterized the
early reportage with the Leica, but intimacy, dynamism and authenticity. “Anyone who wants to
create lively pictures not of posed life, but real life—of street scenes, work, luxury, misery, sports
and games—needs a convenient, fast and ever-ready camera,” the photography publisher Walther
Heering stated in 1929. From 1925 onward, the Leica was that camera.
PHOTOJOURNALISM (1945–1970)
In the years after the Second World War, the genre of photographic reportage experienced a
second astonishing blossoming. Television was still in its early days. Only in the 1960s did the
home television screen become a true competitor to the medium of magazines. Thus, this period is
considered a second “golden age” of photojournalism, whose journalistic and economic side was
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reflected in widely circulated publications. Foremost among them was the magazine Life, Look,
Collier’s and Ladies’ Home Journal in the United States, Picture Post in England, Du in Switzerland,
Paris Match and Réalités in France and the magazines Quick, Revue, Kristall, Bunte and Stern in
Germany. Published for the most part on a weekly basis, these magazines drew their stories from a
young, mobile generation of photojournalists. Cameras such as the Leica M3 (beginning in 1954)
and M2 (beginning in 1958) became the ideal tool for discrete yet authentic, short-range
photography. The jet age provided reporters with an unprecedented degree of mobility. New
technologies (such as the wirephoto) allowed for the quick and global dissemination of stories or
individual pictures, many of which have become icons of this new photography. The founding of
Magnum Photos in 1947 can be seen as the beginning of the second “golden age” of
photojournalism. The era ended symbolically with the discontinuation of Life in 1972, though this
does not mean that the genre of photographic reportage became irrelevant. However, it changed
stylistically, became more personal and found new forums: the photography book, the gallery and
the Internet, where “great, silent pictures” (Norbert Bolz) continue to assert their superiority over
television, as the writer Milan Kundera observes: “The memory does not film, the memory
photographs.”
PHOTOGRAPHERS AS AUTEURS
Parallel to the second “golden age” of photojournalism, around 1960 a new stance began to
emerge among photographers. What mattered to them was no longer a staff position at a
magazine, traveling in the service of a widely distributed publication or photo essays printed by the
millions in magazines. Most important, and the true motivation for their efforts, was the personal
project, often developed over a long period of time, combined with an individual style that
frequently expanded the boundaries of the medium. What young photographers such as William
Klein, Robert Frank, Bruce Davidson and René Burri had in common was their interest in social
topics and changes in society. This placed them within the territory of Photographie humaniste, but
their gaze had become more critical. Their perception of the world was filled with skepticism and
was thus far from the sentimental gestures of the still influential exhibition The Family of Man.
Books such as Wiliam Kleins New York (1956), Robert Franks Les Américans (1958) or René Burris
Die Deutschen (1962) irritated contemporary audiences, provoked resistance and, two generations
later, became true bibles of an emerging auteurism in photography. What was truly shocking was a
photographic aesthetic that broke nearly every rule to create a new kind of pictures with
deliberately blurred motion, available light, coarse grain and bold cropping. Furthermore, many
photographers showed an affinity for wide-angle views. The resulting impressions ranged from
intimacy and presence (Ed van der Elsken, Bruce Davidson, Will McBride) to interaction (William
Klein), which meant a break with Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose influence continued to make itself
felt. Once again, the Leica was their tool of choice: it was convenient, lightweight, always ready and
easy to use, even with long exposure times in difficult lighting at full aperture.
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THE NEW COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY
Kodachrome (1935) and Agfacolor (1936) film not only ushered in a technological paradigm shift;
the debate about color also moved in a new direction. While the discourse had long focused almost
exclusively on technical questions about the color process, now it revolved around the potential art
status of color photography, which for many was all too lifelike—a point that remained controversial
until long after the Second World War. As late as 1962, Karl Pawek seriously posed the question. In
other words, it was in the 1960s that color photography began to gain significant ground. At the
same time, it encountered a bastion of supporters of black and white, primarily in the field of
journalistic and documentary photography. The turn toward color among artist photographers is
commonly associated with the “New Color,” a term coined by the American art historian Sally
Eauclaire, whose normative view of the 1970s in America continues to shape the discourse to this
day. According to Eauclaire, only with figures such as William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel
Meyerowitz did color photography move away from its roles in advertising and journalism to gain
artistic independence as a distinct art form. Commonly cited landmarks include the exhibitions of
William Eggleston the Museum of Modern Art (1976). What the aforementioned photographers had
in common was their absolute will to express themselves in color and their courage to explore their
immediate, supposedly banal environment. The Danish Leica photographer Keld Helmer-Petersen
captured everyday things in color as early as the 1940s. Other important and yet often overlooked
pioneers of the new color aesthetic include the Canadian Fred Herzog as well as Horst H.
Baumann, Peter Cornelius and Erwin Fieger of Germany.
PHOTOGRAPHERS AS AUTEURS: THE 1960S (II)
Maverick photographers had always existed. What was new was the radicalism with which the
medium was now conceived, boundaries were overcome and formal-aesthetic standards were
overturned in favor of a surprising kind of photography that disregarded every possible rule, that
was less interested in structures, contrasts of light and shadow and blurred effects than in the
“social landscape.”
In this sense, the 1960s and ’70s became the golden age of a street photography that combined
an interest in social rituals with experimental or conceptual strategies. The aim was to use pictures
not only to say something about society, but about the medium itself, its grammar, its iconography,
and it was Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand in particular who established the idea of the
documentary approach. “Their photographs make us aware that the effects of compression, equal
density, sharpness, and juxtaposition are the province of the medium, beyond the scope of the
human eye and habitual seeing. Their world is precisely that world described by the wide-angle
Summicron lens of a Leica stopped down in bright sunlight or strobe light.”
PHOTOGRAPHERS AS AUTEURS: THE 1970S
While a considerable number of press photographers switched to single-lens reflex cameras in the
1960s and ’70s—which also allowed them to use long focal lengths—the Leica became the tool of
choice for at least one generation of international auteurist photographers. The Leica was small,
lightweight and discreet. It was inconspicuous and thus allowed the photographer to operate
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EXHIBITION
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almost unnoticed on the street. The short focal lengths with their large depth of field allowed for
fast focusing. Or the photographer could determine the area of focus in advance (“pre-focus”) and
quickly shoot from the hip. The camera also didn’t cover the photographer’s entire face when
looking through the viewfinder. One eye remained free to observe the scene outside the field of
view. The viewfinder itself was bright, and—unlike single-lens reflex cameras—it also showed the
area surrounding the frame. Only this way could a shot be precisely framed. It was no coincidence
that Leica photographs tended to be conceived and composed from the edges and not from the
middle of the picture. Leica photographs are taken at eye level. Designed for short focal lengths, it
allows the photographer to stay close to the scene. This also lends the photographs a specific
impression and a particular authenticity. Those who worked with the Leica truly became one with
the camera. “As a documentarian,” the historian of photography Jonathan Greene writes, following
Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Winogrand has made the camera an extension of his eye. Friedlander’s
achievement is more extreme: his eye has become an extension of his camera”.
PHOTOGRAPHERS AS AUTEURS – 1980 TO TODAY
In times when none of the remaining magazines could afford or wanted a permanent photographer
on the staff, conversely museums showed photographic images, galleries dealt with photographs,
corporate collections were essentially loaded with photographic images, the artistically interested
author – nolens volens – became the model of our post modern photography culture. Looking over
the terrain - sighting contemporary Leica photography - by way of experiment six different types of
photographic authors would be distinguishable to the viewer – whereby the boundaries – of course
– are fluxionary. As before, young photographers consider the genre Reportage as loyal, traveling
on one’s own mission, following their themes often over a longer period of time and decisively set
in one’s own handwriting in order to distinguish itself from the visual Fast Food of the electronic
media (Paolo Pellegrin, Kai Wiedenhöfer). The Photo essay – the traditional travelogue –
henceforth critique, formal discriminating exploration of a world in upheaval (Bertrand Meunier,
Klavdij Sluban) remains as current as the debate with social themes in the sense of a recently
defined stance as Personal Documentary (Jane Evelyn Atwood, Michael von Graffenried, Gaël
Turine). Photographers use their camera, to overcome personal trauma or simply to explore their
private environment, stirring up a type of visual diary (Paula Luttringer, Alberto García-Alix, Tom
Wood). Deliberately they wield their device against the dictates of the instruction manual in the
spirit of the classical modern (key word Visualism) formal aesthetic to sound out the boundaries of
the medium (Andreas Müller-Pohle). Or they ask fundamental – photography – questions. For
instance: What do we do with pictures? What do they do with us? How do they mould our thinking,
our knowledge? Against this backdrop, available material will be enhanced, sorted and reactivated.
Appropriation Art is the concept of the hour, whereby the arc reaches from anonymous snapshots
over the photo icons and on to film (François Fontaine).
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PRESS IMAGES
100 YEARS LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY
EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 YEARS OF LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY
March 13 – May 31, 2015
Opening: Thursday, March 12, 2015, 7 pm
Press conference: Thursday, March 12, 2015, 1 pm
Herbie Yamaguchi: " we are still alive", Japan 2011
(Hände von Überlebenden (Großmutter, Tochter und Enkelin) nach dem Erdbeben und Tsunami in Nord-Japan am 11
März 2011)
© Herbie Yamaguchi
Bruce Gilden: ohne Titel, aus dem Zyklus „GO“, 2001
© Bruce Gilden 2015/Magnum Photos
Seite 1/14
PRESS IMAGES
Michael von Graffenried: aus dem Zyklus "Nackt im Paradies", Thielle (Schweiz), 1998
© Michael von Graffenried
Jeff Mermelstein: Sidewalk, 1995
© Jeff Mermelstein / Leica Camera AG
Seite 2/14
PRESS IMAGES
Jeffrey Silverthorne: Woman with Lace #1, Nuevo Laredo, 1990. Aus der Serie "Boystown"
© Jeffrey Silverthorne
Wilfried Bauer, Aus der Serie »Hongkong«, 1985,
ursprünglich erschienen im FAZ-Magazin # 307 vom 17.01.1986
© Nachlass Wilfried Bauer/Stiftung F.C. Gundlach
Seite 3/14
PRESS IMAGES
Bernd Arnold: »Das Kölner Heil« aus dem Zyklus »Macht und Rituale der Katholischen Kirche in Köln «, 1986-1997,
Kardinal in seinem Dienstwagen, 1989, Köln, Deutschland.
© Bernd Arnold
Viktor Kolář: aus der Serie »Ostrava«, 1981. Einheimische beim Kegeln während eines Sommer Wochenendes
© Viktor Kolář
Seite 4/14
PRESS IMAGES
Nick Út: The Associated Press, Napalm-Angriff in Vietnam, 1972
© Nick Út/AP/ Leica Camera AG
Claude Dityvon: »L'homme à la chaise« [Der Mann auf dem Stuhl], Bd. St. Michel", 21. Mai 1968
© Chris Dityvon, Paris
Seite 5/14
PRESS IMAGES
Fred Herzog
Man with Bandage, 1968
Courtesy of Equinox Gallery, Vancouver
© Fred Herzog, 2015
Ulrich Mack: Wildpferde in Kenia, 1964
© Ulrich Mack, Hamburg / Leica Camera AG
Seite 6/14
PRESS IMAGES
Christer Strömholm. Nana, Place Blanche, Paris 1961
© Christer Strömholm/Strömholm Estate, 2015
Robert Lebeck: Der gestohlene Degen, Belgisch Kongo, Leopoldville, 1960
© Robert Lebeck/ Leica Camera AG
Seite 7/14
PRESS IMAGES
Hans Silvester: Stahlgerüstmontage, ohne Jahr (ca. Ende der 1950er Jahre)
© Hans Silvester/ Leica Camera AG
Seite 8/14
PRESS IMAGES
F.C. Gundlach, Modereportage für Nino, Hamburger Hafen 1958
© F.C. Gundlach
F.C. Gundlach, Modereportage für Nino, Hamburger Hafen 1958
© F.C. Gundlach
Seite 9/14
PRESS IMAGES
Walter Vogel: Dalmatiner ... Kein Interesse an Fußball, Düsseldorf 1956
© Walter Vogel
Walter Vogel: Boxerbeine, Düsseldorf 1956
© Walter Vogel
Seite 10/14
PRESS IMAGES
Franz Hubmann: Stammgast im Café Hawelka, Wien 1956/57
© Franz Hubmann
Leica Camera AG
Alfred Eisenstaedt: VJ Day, Times Square, NY, 14. August 1945
© Alfred Eisenstaedt, 2015
Leica Camera AG
Seite 11/14
PRESS IMAGES
Heinrich Heidersberger: Laederstraede, Kopenhagen 1935
© Institut Heidersberger, www.heidersberger.de.
Anton Stankowski : Begrüßung, Zürich, Rüdenplatz, 1932
© Stankowski-Stiftung
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PRESS IMAGES
Oskar Barnack: Flut in Wetzlar, 1920
© Leica Camera AG
Oskar Barnack: Wetzlar Eisenmarkt, 1913
© Leica Camera AG
Seite 13/14
PRESS IMAGES
Ur-Leica, 1914
© Leica Camera AG
The offered photos may be published exclusively in connection with the exhibition
“EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years of Leica Photography” (March 13−May 31, 2015).
If you will be reporting, we would greatly appreciate a notice of the publication, clipping or link.
Press material
For high res press images and more information about the exhibition, please contact
Andrea Horvay by telephone +49 (0) 69 29 17 26 or by email at presse@fffrankfurt.org.
Seite 14/14

press release 100 years of leica photography

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