What to buy in November 2009

Elliott Erwitt has been a MAGNUM member since the 1950s and is definitely one of the world’s giants of street photography. His images do not only catch scenes and situations which most of us would not even notice; the special thing about Erwitt is the particular humorist approach toward his subjects.
To me, along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt is one of the best street photographers of all time. Famous are his images of dogs (and their owners), people interacting with others or with their environment.

I don’t even know whether There are any publicized images in color, Elliott Erwitt is and will be known as a black&white photographer. This volume shows a number of his most famous photopraphs in a big size book with a great layout on beautiful paper. Special about this publication is also that most o the text is by Erwitt himself, giving an introduction about himself, his life, and his photography.

From the book:
“The dedicated photographer works with his own sensibility, instincts, and experience. He stays curious about everything visible. He looks, looks some more, and then looks again, because that is the fundamental basis of photography. And that’s all…just looking and making your own unique connections.”

This is his website!

You get this edition on discount here!

Love

My wife Ming with my daughter Maya, Oct. 2009:

I just couldn’t find a better title for this image…

Leica M3
Kodak Portra 400VC

Some people are…

Some thoughts from today’s bus ride to work:

Some people are like digital images. They are pretty, colorful and sharp. There is some sort of automatic shadow lighting and they look all perfect and shiny. However, the highlights get burned out quite easily, they all look kind of the same, and most of all: They all seem to lack depth and suffer from chronic shallowness. It’s a quick impression that usually doesn’t last very long.

Fashion photography is similar: Pretty shiny images of beautiful models. Too bad, though, the impression is only meant to last about 10 sec. before we flip to the next page. The image just as the model is forgotten within a moment.

That’s all for today…

What to buy in September 2009

The Polaroid Book:

The Polaroid picture has become an icon of 20th century photography. The possibility to create instant results was a small revolution when it was first presented to the market.
What also made the Polaroid camera special was the close cooperation between famous photographers and Polaroid. People like Ansel Adams contributed to the development of the Polaroid film to achieve the best possible results. The fact that artists embraced this technology lead to a whole new genre of photography.

“The Polaroid Book”, published by TASCHEN, gives a fantastic overview over the range of Polaroid Photography since the 1950. This includes images by Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Danny Lyon, Barbara Hitchcock, Bill Burke, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elliot Erwitt and many others. It also gives an overview of the history of the Polaroid camera, its creator Edwin Land, and all the different models since its introduction in 1954.
It’s a beautiful book to browse through. Highly recommended!

Camera Review: Leicaflex SL

I do not own this camera. My father does. He bought it sometime in the early 70s and after only one servicing in 2007, it is still serving him perfectly!
So why am I writing about the Leicaflex? Isn’t there the fabulous Leica R9 which is an ergonomic dream (or seems to be)? Well I own a Leica R8 which is a nice camera, apart from being a bit clunky. But last month I had to borrow my father’s Leicaflex since my beloved M6 was damaged. And what happened? I was blown away!

The Leicaflex and its second model “SL” was Leica’s attempt to stay in the professional race after losing the market to SLR cameras in the 1960. Leica had been too comfortable with their very successful M2 and M3 and had not realized that the time of the rangefinder was coming to it’s (temporary) end. By the time they saw it, most professionals had already changed to Nikon, Canon, Pentax etc.
The Leicaflex was the attempt to win back some of that market. Unfortunately it was already too late, the camera didn’t meet the market’s demand and Leica almost went bankrupt. The advanced Leica M5 had also been a flop and it really didn’t look good for the German camera manufacturer.
The Leicaflex was too heavy and big for the photojournalist of the 70s. The optics were fantastic, but also heavy and expensive. Not what the market needed. So the Leicaflex drifted into obscurity and was (and is) mainly used by Leica amateurs who stuck to the system. After Leica started using bodies supplied by Minolta (R-Series) the Leicaflex design got almost forgotten. Today it’s basically a collector’s item.

Unjustified, as I think!

When I tested the Leicaflex SL, the first thing I noticed was the wonderful ergonomics. You don’t believe me? Yes! Even though the camera looks like a brick, it feels good in the hand, perfectly balanced. And the transport lever is the very best what I have ever used. It just fits perfectly with my thumb and moves smoothly when pushed around. The feel of this is even better than shutting the door of a Mercedes Benz! The shutter is an old fashioned “sticking out” shutter. It is positioned in the center of the shutter speed dial an just like the transport lever, it feels just right on the finger. Smooth and “klick”! I love it!

But, and I think this cannot be repeated often enough: What makes a great camera for me is the size and the brightness of the viewfinder! Only a bright viewfinder gives you the right tool to compose a perfect picture. Nobody can bring all the elements of an image properly together while looking at a (DX-) thumbnail. And that what makes the Leicaflex one of the great cameras, next to the Leica M system and the Hasselblad V system. The viewfinder is huge and super sharp, even dwarfing the Leica R9’s finder which is already probably the best SLR finder in the market. What I like most is the prism which has just a big circle in the middle and is perfect for focusing. There is nothing to obstruct the view, nothing gets cut in half, no blinking lights, no stupid green or orange info bars, (almost) just you and the image.

On the bottom you will see the shutter speed (no irritating lights) and on the right the Leicaflex still has one of these “line and circle” things which died out in the 80s, even though it’s so easy to use. Bring the line into the circle by turning the aperture ring and you get the right exposure!

The leicaflex SL is a bargain on the second hand market. Get it with the (outstanding) f2/50mm Summicron and you have a wonderful camera that gives you better SLR quality than 90% of what’s new in the market. After getting used to the handling, you will also find that taking images with this icon is not only a lot of fun but also much easier and more stress free thah with a modern camera full of (useless) functions, menus and dials. Check it out!

Discovering Berlin!

Have you ever been to Berlin, Germany’s capital? If not, you have missed out a lot. Berlin is not only in the heart of Europe and the connection point between Eastern and western Europe (along with Vienna); it is also one of the hottest and most trendy places to be. Berlin has its distinctive style, sub culture and fashion which stand clearly out from mainstream Europe.
Along with that, Berlin offers a lot in terms of Architecture, Historical Places, Nature etc etc etc. This is the place where the cold war adversaries met. Traces of that can still be found everywhere, including parts of the Berlin Wall and other historical sites of that period.

For the photographer Berlin offers numerous opportunities for street photography, people photography, architecture etc. etc. etc.. But where to start and where to go? How do you make the best out of your time and manage to explore a place that has so much to offer?

The Berlin photographer Pierre Vau offers the chance to explore and discover Berlin in a photographic way. “Capital Colors” is a project that offers custom tailored tours through Berlin. Pierre and his partner Anja Meier will take you through Berlin, they will show you places that you would not have found yourself, angles and perspectives that go far beyond the usual tourist guide tour, and this will be complemented with photo workshops and technical help. In the end you will take home a self made (linen bound) book about Berlin that clearly stands out from the usual pile of snaps!

From the website:
Upon my photographic expedition, I would like to:
- Get to know Berlin better
- Discover places off the beaten path which most visitors to Berlin would never see
- Within the parameters of a city tour, take a photographic course in analog or digital photography
- Help me to explore the full potential of my camera equipment
- Improve my photographic skills
- Find motifs which others don?t find
- Gain skills in the Photoshop photo editing program
- Discuss my photos with experienced photographers in the workshop
- Spend my Berlin stay more effectively and pleasantly thanks to optimal preparation
- Have contact with people who know the nightlife scene and are contemporary witnesses to Berlin?s eventful history
- Also receive guided architectural or art tours when participating in a photo safari
- Logically develop a photographic theme for myself, but I need suggestions for this and the opportunity to realize this
- Have a personal coffee table book created which contains my own photos

Here are some more examples of Pierre Vaus’s Berlin photography:

Anyone in Asa who is interested in traveling to Berlin can also contact me and I will help with the set up. I don’t charge a cent!

All images shown here are by Pierre Vau.

Photographers: Fernando Ocaña Fernández

Today I would like to talk about someone I have found on the popular internet photo platform “flickr”. I always find it amazing what kind of jewels I sometimes find amongst all the thousands of meaningless uploads.
“Byfer” (his “flickr” name) is a Spanish photographer from Madrid who specializes on portraits, mostly in black and white, MF analog, but also digital. He has a sensational feeling for light and expression. From the technical perspective I find everything flawless. I always wonder how people manage to get analog images that clean…the only other photographer I know who’s images are as clean is Michael Doerr (see link!).

I don’t want to talk too much about Fernando’s work because the images should speak for themselves. You can find them here!
For me this is another example how light, composition, and a feeling for the photographed subject can create something magical. Don’t miss it!

What to buy in August 2009

Russel Miller: Magnum 50 Years

In my last post I was talking about Eve Arnold being one of the most important members in the history of MAGNUM. I guess this is an opportunity to introduce a book that gives a good overview of the history, background and members of the world’s most famous photo agency.

Russel Miller’s work describes not only the way MAGNUM was founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and George Roger in the 1950s. He also gives very good insight in the psychology and dynamics of the agency by describing the life and the photography of some of it’s most famous members, including Werner Bischof, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, David Seymour, Josef Koudelka, Philip Jones Griffiths, and others.

Miller not only talks about the grandeur of the agency and all its achievements. He also describes the struggles, arguments, and crises that MAGNUM went through in its 50 years of history, almost almost being at the brink of collapse and bankruptcy. And it describes the way MAGNUM had to adjust to a world in which the still picture seems to have lost it’s position to the moving picture and TV coverage of world events.
MAGNUM stands for honesty and finding the truth in photo journalism. It was always a creation of it’s time, both catching and at the same time struggling with zeitgeist and the conflict between the freedom of art the commercial need of it’s members. A book definitely worth reading.

This edition can be purchased here!

What to buy in July 2009:

“Eve Arnold’s People”

Eve Arnold is one of the classics of MAGNUM – photography. She joined the agency in its first decade in the 1950s and has been one of the members that shaped MAGNUM and symbolized the spirit and the style of probably the most famous photo agency in history.
Eve Arnold has always been famous for her portraiture. Especially her images “on set” of Maryllin Monroe or her China images pop up when we think of her legacy. For me her style very much stands for an approach towards the subject that creates emotional depth by building up a relationship with the photographed person before shooting. especially her images taken on Hollywood film sets demonstrate this. Her intimate portraits of Hollywood actors are exceptional.

This volue is a compilation of Eve Arnold’s portrait photography. I had been looking for something like this for a long time. Most of her original books have not been published for a long time and could only be purchased on the art market for very high prices. This book is a good quality volume for an affordable price, always appreciated!

It can be purchased here!

beach

Singapore East Coast Beach, 2009:

Beach photography didn’t use to be my thing. I guess the reason was that I didn’t really live very close to any and never had the chance to go. I am also a person who was always driven to the mountains. When I was a child, my father took me to the Austrian and Italian Alps where we went mountain hiking. I always loved the breathtaking majestic of the mountains, while the sea seemed to be endlessly flat and boring, without much that could catch my eye or my imagination.

Well I am still not much of a beach fan. Going to the sea mostly means scuba diving which sometimes seems to the like visiting the underwater mountains…
However, since the children love the beach and we live on an island, sometimes there is just no way around it. And when it comes to outdoor people photography, I must admit that there is not much that beats a beach. The light is just amazing, you have a great background with beach, sky, sea, and people are generally in a good mood (especially children). The beach works for color but is also great for black & white. So I always enjoy going there with my family.

The only think that I don’t like is the sand which tries to get into every part of my camera gear…