Text and Captions: José Manuel Serrano Esparza
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
February 3, 1934 inside La Scala of Milan (Italy) Opera Theatre. It is the premiere day of Rimsky-Korsakov´s " The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya ", directed by George Sebastien.
The opera house is overcrowded with attendees, who have just watched the two first acts of this four sections play, so now begins an intermission of roughly 30 minutes and everybody is relaxed within their boxes.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
Alfred Eisenstaedt, a German photographer working for the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (the most important illustrated magazine in the world at the time, with a print run of more than 2,000.000 samples, and managed by the editor-in-chief Kurt Korff and publishing director Kurt Szafranski) and the Associated Press Office in Germany, for which he had begun to make photographs in 1929), is also present,
© Leica Camera AG
equipped with a 24 x 36 mm format screwmount Leica III rangefinder camera
© Leica Camera AG
with a chrome Vidom universal viewfinder (for lenses between 35 and 135 mm and featuring parallax correction) on its accessory shoe, loaded with Weston 32 (equivalent to ISO 40) Eastman Kodak Nitrate Panchromatic cinematographic black and white film
© Leica Camera AG
coupled to a 4 elements in 3 groups with 10 blade diaphragm Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens and a small and thin wooden tripod.
He will soon become one of the best photojournalists in the world, being one of the pioneers of candid snapshots, working for Life magazine, achieving a total of 92 covers, publishing more than 2,500 photo stories and getting more than one million pictures throughout his professional career.
Top priority for Eisie is to go unnoticed and capture defining instants in an unobtrusive way, leveraging the photographic gear he is using today, utterly optimized for this aim, through the highly efficient symbiosis between two geniuses:
© jmse
- Oskar Barnack, Chief of Mechanical Design at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar and creator of the Leica III rangefinder camera in 1933.
© jmse
- Max Berek, Chief of Optical Design at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar and designer of the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens in 1930.
This camera / lens combo is amazingly small and light,
© Leica Camera AG
with dimensions of 133 x 39 x 65 mm and a weight of 400 g the Leica III
Chrome Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 EKURZCHROM from 1936, showing its painstaking mechanical construction, with praiseworthy thoroughness in the knurling of its front ring and the concentric metallic tiny rings and fluted zone of its very small focusing lever. The protruding inner metallic ring enables to see its brass under the worn black paint.
© Leica Camera AG
and a tiny size of 48 x 22 mm and weight of 110 g the non coated Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5, being of invaluable help to preserve discretion during the photographic act, in a much better way than the large format and medium format cameras that had reigned supreme until then, but were very bulky, rather heavy and virtually impossible to use without being detected, in addition to being able to make only one picture (the large format ones) and twelve pictures (the 6 x 6 cm medium format ones with a 120 roll film) and needing much longer exposure times,
© Leica Camera AG
while the Leica III can make 36 pictures and shoot handheld with much faster shutter speeds, getting sharp images.
But unlike the previous Leica II (Model D) from 1932, whose slowest shutter speed (in addition to the Z setting for very long exposures) was 1/20s, relying only on the shutter speed top dial, there is a further key factor trailblazed by the Leica III which hugely enhances the possibilities of getting good pictures indoors with available light:
© Leica Camera AG
the introduction of a very small dial for slow 1/20 s, 1/8 s, 1/4 s, 1/2 s and 1 second speeds placed on top front left area of the camera, near the lens.
© Leica Camera AG
This stunning device for the time, incepted by Oskar Barnack, is really a top-notch horology escapement, works like a charm in photographic contexts with low available light and will be the reference-class miniaturized mechanism in its photographic scope until the arrival two years later, in 1936, of the groundbreaking Ihageee Kine Exakta, first 24 x 36 mm format reflex camera in the world, designed by Karl Nüchterlein, who created the state-of-the-art big slow speed and delayed action knob working as a selector of long shutter speeds, a likewise mechanically controlled, but technologically much more advanced escapement, featuring nothing less than twelve different slow speeds (1/10 s, 1/2 s, 1 s, 2 s, 3 s, 4 s, 5 s, 6 s, 7 s, 8 s, 9 s, 11 s and 12 s) and very expensive to design and manufacture.
© Leica Camera AG
But Barnack´s tiny slow speed dial in the Leica III was less complex, more reliable, less prone to failure and its exceedingly small size made it much more discreet.
In addition, the Leica III utterly mechanical focal-plane horizontally travelling shutter with rubberized curtains, designed by Barnack, is a masterpiece of reliability and endurance, as well as yielding an incredibly almost imperceptible low noise when shooting the camera, a pivotal trait helping to fulfill every photojournalist´s drea: to become invisible during the photographic act.
Alfred Eisenstaedt has managed to occupy an empty box of La Scala Opera Theatre fourth floor of tiers, where he has set up his camera and lens on the small and thin tripod, waiting to get good pictures.
A few minutes elapse, and suddenly, Alfred Eisenstaedt sees a young woman sitting in the box next to his.
Eisie realizes that she is an interesting subject, clad in a white lacey evening jacket, with a small fabric filigree bag beside her right arm and a pair of painted in black colour Jumelle chevalier brass opera binoculars, leaned on its ledge protruding from the velvet balustrade. She often seems to be absent-minded.
The photographer puts his Leica III with Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 on a vertical way on the small and thin wooden tripod, placing the young woman on the lower right area of the frame, sets a shutter speed of 1/2 second at widest f/3.5 diaphragm, focuses on her face,
© Leica Camera AG
harnessing the 1.5x rangefinder magnification of his camera, and waits to capture a meaningful instant.
A few seconds later, the yearned decisive moment arrives when the young woman is engrossed in her thoughts, with a lost look in her eyes and her bent right hand very near her right chin, with her index finger touching her neck
Alfred Eisenstaedt presses the shutter realease button of his Leica III and a distinct soft mechanical and clockwork-like whirring sound arises, because the 1/2 second setting is engaging the slow speed mechanism that smoothly ticks down for the duration of the exposure, as the second curtain closes and the tiny horology widget returns to its position.
The noise produced by the utterly mechanical focal-plane and horizontally travelling shutter with rubberized cloth curtains of this camera is very low, significantly helping to preserve the discretion and go unnoticed while getting the picture, while simultaneously Eisenstaedt interacts tactilely and audibly with that device, feeling the indescribable sensation of mechanically moving parts with clockwork precision.
And his height of 1,53 meters has also helped to get unobtrusiveness and not be detected by the young girl.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
The photographer has just captured a magical moment, balancing the remarkable subtlety and naiveness of a personal quiet moment in an spectator, accurately depicting the mood of the young woman at that precise instant, while simultaneously showing the true atmosphere and opulence of the famous Italian Opera Theatre in a lavish context epitomized by the luxurious and very decorated balconies, the profusion of columns everywhere, the widespread groups of five lamps providing subdued lighting, and particularly the abundant attendees visible in the many boxes with balconies of the six theatre floors, many of them chatting during the intermission, others being standing, resting or looking at different areas, and so forth.
AN ENTHRALLING IMAGE WITH GREAT DEPTH OF FIELD
Eisenstaedt has managed to capture the lavishness and stunning scale of La Scala Opera Theatre, along with the thrill of a premiere day, by means of a composition highlighting the theatre´s interior, with the amazing extension of the tiered boxes and the building massive vertical reach.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
The vertical framing with the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens has generated a view encompassing from the main floor seats visible in the lower left corner of the image to the highest and cheapest ones just under the ceiling, which can be seen on its top area.
In addition, the feeling of dizzy height is enhanced by a hint of horizontal space provided by the sweeping evenly spaced columns and the figures they hold.
Anyway, the epicenter of the picture is the young woman appearing on far right of the image, during the intermission, resting on her box seat beside her companion, who is reading a program.
Eisie has attained an outstanding level of mystery pervading the image, since it is impossible to discern her facial expression or guess what she is thinking, which brings about conjectures by any observer regarding the unknown companion, the subject of their conversation, their kind of relationship and so forth.
Undoubtedly, the presence of this young woman is the key ingredient of the picture, turning it into a memorable image.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
But there is a further factor boosting the beauty and ambience masterfully depicted in this iconic image : in spite of having been made at widest f/3.5 aperture, the picture exhibits a great depth of field, with sharpness on vast majority of the photograph, from the young girl with her opera binoculars to the six floors of tiered boxes, colonnades, the small part of the ceiling visible on top left corner of the image, and five of the bird-shaped moldings describing an ascending path over the main character of the photograph´s head.
It is not a clinical sharpness with tons of detail, but much more than enough for the time,
Old chrome Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 EKURZCHROM from 1935 showing the diaphragms between f/3.5 and f/18 on its top. Under the knurled upper ring of the lens is the f stops scale, and beneath it is the distance scale in meters. The design compactness of this lens is amazing.
© Leica Camera AG
thanks to the inherent big depth of field of the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens, even at full aperture, in symbiosis with the Eastman Kodak Nitrate Panchromatic cinematographic black and white film, featuring a very low sensitivity of Weston 32 (equivalent to ISO 40) and rather visible grain, but because of its high quantity of silver halide, it boasts excellent acutance in contours, something also helping to get a good sharpness for the time on most of the 24 x 36 mm negative.
That´s to say, thanks to the new Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens, in this image the depth of field has made possible to include everything in the frame with enough sharpness.
The only exception is the slightly out of focus base of the column reaching the velvet balcony (separating the box in which Eisenstaedt is and the adjacent one occupied by the young woman and her companion, visible on the right lower corner of the picture) and the semicircular ornament on the nearest column to the camera).
The 65º wide coverage of the lens has made feasible to show quite a lot of the interior andconvey a feeling of spaciousness and depth.
To all intents and purposes, all of this meant a revolution in photography, because such a wide angle of view of the Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 lens (first wideangle prime in the world for 24 x 36 mm format rangefinder cameras) and so extensive sharpness all over the whole surface of the picture, would have been impossible to get with 45º coverage standard 50 mm lenses for 24 x 36 mm format like the Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5, which had been the most widespread lens until then (50 mm focal length primes would go on reigning supreme until mid fifties in the realm of photojournalism).
Needless to say that getting this picture with a medium or large format camera of the time was
out of the question, since it would have been very slow and difficult to focus in dim light, and stopping down for depth of field would have requiered a very long time exposure of a lot of seconds.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
Therefore, this picture made by Alfred Eisenstaedt
© Leica Camera AG
was one of the first practical uses of the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens within the sphere of photojournalism, pioneering the new concept that a lens could cover that great angle of view and at the same time give such depth of field at the largest f/3.5 aperture.
And though the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 had been available since 1930, it was necessary the vision of photographers like Alfred Eisenstaedt (a true genius discovering defining offhand gestures and offstage instants) to use the lens in new and unusual places and show the world what those previously unseen places looked like through the pages of the news magazines, with a combination of wide angle and depth that was a revelation for both viewers and photographers.
On the other hand, though extensive depth of field prevails in the image, the slow shutter speed of 1/2 second used by Eisensteadt has made that some standing persons moving inside their tiered boxes in the background appear blurred because of trepidation, providing a sense of motion in tiny specific areas of the picture:
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
A LEITZ ELMAR 35 MM F/3.5 WIDEANGLE LENS BOASTING FLAT FIELD
© Leica Camera AG
The uncoated Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 used by Alfred Eisenstaedt to do this iconic picture was a flat field lens,
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
something apparent in the very rectilinear vertical lines of the abundant small columns of La Scala Theatre ( with the only exception of the two nearest ones to the camera on the upper far right area of the image, which had previously been refurbished and show some entasis) and particularly in the feeling of sharpness on most of the image surface.
After testing some units, Eisie chose it because of its excellent control of distortion and its rectilinear virtues when making indoor pictures with architectural structures and people coexisting, or creating images with architectural structures or buildings appearing in them.
This is highly relevant from an optical viewpoint, because right off the bat there were significant variations from lens to lens between examples of the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 between 1930 (year of its introduction) and 1950 (its last year of manufacture) regarding field curvature, to such an extent that some units exhibit flat field, while others show a moderate or even considerable field curvature.
It is also true that there were photographers using this lens who opted for a unit sporting moderate field curvature, because it delivered a much deeper effective depth of field achievable in a three dimensional world, leveraging this effect to capture objects nearer or farther from the camera at the corners, increasing the usable focus area, because the curvature allows the center and corners to remain sharp, even if they are not on the same physical plane, effectively extending the depth of field beyond what a flat field lens might provide.
Furthermore, the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 lenses featuring moderate positive field curvature generated not only some extra depth of field, but also a cleaner and more contrasty performance at full aperture, so Ernst Leitz Wetzlar manufactured this lens in both flat field units and moderate or even great field curvature ones, trying to adapt to the specific needs of each photographer.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
Anyway, in the famous picture made by Alfred Eisenstaedt, the depth of field is very extensive, with good feeling of sharpness and depth over the whole image,
Selective framing of the lower half of the photograph.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
and only the base of the column (visible on the right lower corner of the picture) reaching the velvet balcony and separating the box in which Eisenstaedt is and the coterminous one occupied by the young woman and her companion, and the semicircular ornament on the nearest column to the camera (visible on the middle far right area of the picture, beside the left area of the young woman´s head) are slightly out of focus.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
On the other hand, the selective framing of the original 24 x 36 mm format black and white negative of Eastman Kodak Nitrate Panchromatic cinematographic film in its middle area reveals more clearly the slow shutter speed of 1/2 second used by Alfred Eisenstaedt to get this picture,
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
since it is possible to discern with more accuracy some standing people who are moving (and
some others sitting, in slight motion) inside their boxes and appear blurred because of trepidation.
A SUBLIME AND UNIQUE VINTAGE AESTHETICS OF IMAGE
Ernst Leitz Wetzlar catalogue of interchangeable Leica screwmount lenses from 1933. On the lower middle left area of the image are the Summar 5 cm f/2 and the Elmar 50 mm f/3.5, while on the right are the thin Elmar 90 mm f/4 and the Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens, whose tiny dimensions of 14 mm length and 49 mm maximum diameter are conspicuously stunning.
© Leica Camera AG
Obviously, the uncoated Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 from probably 1933 used by Alfred Eisenstaedt to make this iconic photograph was far from being a razor sharp lens, and any screwmount Summaron 35 mm f/3.5 (1946-1960), Summaron-M 35 mm f/3.5 (1954-1960) or a modern Cosina Voigtländer Color-Skopar 35 mm f/3.5 aspherical are much better lenses in terms of resolving power, contrast and sharpness.
But it is a 96 years old design, whose first non standardized units hark back to 1930,
Page of the Leica Gesamt-Katalog (Leica General Catalogue) from 1932, showing the Leica II (Model D), first camera of the German photographic brand featuring integrated rangefinder. It can be seen surrounded by the interchangeable lenses available to it, from left to right : Hektor 50 mm f/2.5, Hektor 73 mm f/1.9, Elmar 35 mm f/3.5, Elmar 135 mm f/4.5, Fat Elmar 90 mm f/4.5 and mountain Elmar 105 mm f/6.3. Once more, the exceedingly small size of the wideangle lens is a riveting sight, and the text in German referring to it explains that it is a lens excelling in architecture and landscape, as well as highlighting its 65º coverage and its very low weight of 100 g.
© Leica Camera AG
while the first ones coupled to camera built-in rangefinder (thanks to the new RF coupling cam) were manufactured in 1932 for the Leica II (Model D).
In addition, it is an uncoated lens optimized for use with black and white films, could be considered soft to nowadays standards, yields low contrast, shows some vignetting wide open and image quality out of the center drops fast,
Optical scheme of the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5, showing its derivative Tessar design.
© Leica Camera AG.
since it is a 4 elements in 3 groups and 10 blade diaphragm Cooke Triplet derivative Tessar design (with the aperture placed behind the second element) stretched to wideangle applications, unlike the more modern Double-Gauss derivative Summaron 35 mm f/3.5, which is a 6 elements in 4 groups and 10 blade diaphragm Gauss type lens featuring much better optical performance.
And it was designed by Max Berek in a completely artisan way, without any help of computers (Leica would begin to use them in 1951), using only very hard work, exceedingly deep knowledge on the properties of optical glasses available at the time, tremendous insight in physics and optics, logarithm tables, a remarkable proficiency in mathematics and a wise use of the German Aristo analog calculum slide rules with a number of logarithmic scales (C,D,CI,C1, etc) to solve complex tray racing and optical calculations, a very time-consuming task at the time that could last a lot of months or even years.
But in spite of its relatively slow widest aperture of f/3.5 (set by Ernst Leitz Wetzlar because the technology and optical glasses available in early thirties, along with shortcomings in production techniques, made that the ability to provide edge to edge high quality was very limited), not producing ultra sharp or high contrast images at all, and needing to be stopped down to f/8 or more to yield its best results, the uncoated Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 lens was up to the task and more than adequate for the thoughtful use Eisie made of it.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
Because the gist of this enduring image and the most important thing of all, is the exceedingly true atmosphere and mood being lived inside La Scala Opera Theatre at that moment in 1934 and masterfully captured by Eisie on getting the picture, which substantiates his uncommon gift for creating moving and vital photographs as his hallmark.
And an uncoated classic lens like the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 was capable of achieving that aim, since it is a wideangle prime oozing character and personality, which was created to tell stories, and thanks to its imperfections wisely balanced by Max Berek, gives low microcontrast in the central area of the picture and barely anything of it in the outer zones, spawning some degree of overall smoothness on the whole frame and making up a defined more rounded yet slightly unsharp detail with black and white film.
It all results in a kind of dreamy images being visually more pleasing than what can usually be captured by more modern lenses (offering much higher levels of resolving power and contrast, along with a far better uniformity of optical performance between widest aperture and f/8, yielding much more perfect results), as well as attaining very beautiful tones and a much deeper degree of immersion for any observer in the instant and period depicted.
The photograph was made by Eisenstaedt at f/3.5 and 1/2 second exposure, from a distance of approximately four meters from the camera to the focused face of the young woman, so the depth of field with full sharpness extends from roughly 2,6 m to 8,6 m.
Everything visible in the background of the image beyond 8,6 m m hasn´t got perfect focus, but the inherent DOF of the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 together with the excellent sharpness in contours of the Eastman Kodak Nitrate Panchromatic black and white film makes that the visual feeling of sharpness stretches on most of the image surface, with the only exception of the base of the nearest column (reaching the balcony and separating the young woman´s box from Eisenstaedt´s one), which is at a distance of approximately 2 meters from camera, and appears slightly out of focus.
In addition, there´s a further major aspect significantly enhancing the charmi and unique vintage
\look of this picture:
The flat field corrections implemented in the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 from 1933 used by Alfred Eisenstaedt to make this picture have produced a slight amount of veiling flare on using the widest aperture of the lens.
It is a picture in which Alfred Eisenstadt took everything to the limit, putting this wideangle lens through its paces in a fairly special environment under available dim light, with a very low sensitivity b & w film roughly equivalent to modern ISO 40, managing to get very accurate focus on the young woman´s face,
Back upper left area of a Leica III showing the rangefinder window (on the left) and the VF window (on the right). The introduction of this camera in 1933 was important with respect to the Leica II, since it increased the RF magnification to 1,5x (in comparison to the Leica II Model D, whose RF magnification was 1x), getting a much more accurate focusing, in addition to offering the new slow shutter speeds dial on the camera front, covering the range between 1 second and 1/20 second, which enabled Alfred Eisenstaedt to do his well-known picture of the young girl inside La Scala Opera Theatre in Milan in 1934 at 1/2 s, something that would have been impossible with the Leica II, whose slowest shutter speed was 1/20 s.
© Leica Camera AG
harnessing the rangefinder 1,5x magnification with 39 mm baselength of his Leica III camera, using the widest f/3.5 aperture of the Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 coupled to it and getting good depth of field on most of the 24 x 36 mm image.
Therefore, this milestone photograph was instrumental to prove the amazing versatility and capabilities of this 65º coverage prime, which clearly made a difference at the time regarding indoor environments, architectural contexts and landscapes, in addition to confirming that Leica LTM lenses work best for b & w.
A TIMELESS IMAGE
When it came to people as individuals, Eisenstaedt was at his best. He loved them, regardless of what they were.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt
" Young woman at La Scala Opera Theatre of Milan (Italy) " by Alfred Eisenstaedt is a milestone picture in the history of photography and a quintessence of engaging image proving that it is the skill, experience, talent, ability to see the picture, gift for composition, sense of anticipation, perfect timing and to be at the adequate place and moment what make a masterpiece photograph like this, merging intimacy and grand architectural scale.
It was published on page 12 of Life magazine number of September 4, 1944, to celebrate Eisenstaedt´s 15th anniversary as a photojournalist (he began in Germany in 1929).
Eleven years later, in the winter of 1955, Life magazine and the George Eastman House in Rochester produced an extraordinary retrospective exhibition of his work, containing 260 prints being and curated by Minor White,
Pages 16 and 17 of the original U.S Leica Photography magazine number 8 volume 3 of fall 1955 from the five page article written by Minor White (Assistant Curator of the George Eastman House Museum in Rochester, New York) elaborating on the Alfred Eisenstaedt´s 25th anniversary as a photojournalist milestone exhibition celebrated at George Eastman House and including four 20,5 x 27,5 cm pictures made by Eisie with the same rectilinear and flat field Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens used by him in 1934, to make his famous picture " Young Woman at La Scala Opera Theatre of Milan ". John F. Brooks (Editor) and Kenneth Poli (Managing Director) realized the far-reaching significance of Eisie´s pictures in the birth and evolution of photojournalism and made extensive coverage of the production of this giant of photography, for whom seeing was his life, in addition to having been a great pioneer of the picture story idea, and each one of his fulfilled assignments was a creative experience.
© jmse
who in the U.S Leica Photography magazine of 1955 fall commented this landmark display of pictures. The four photographs included in the illustrated publication had been made by Eisie using the same Leitz Elmar 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens with which he made his famous image " Young Woman at La Scala Opera Theatre in 1934 ".
Advertisement announcing the milestone exhibitions " Leica Remembers Alfred Eisenstaedt " , presented in association with the Life Gallery of Photography, and " Leica Celebrates Al Hirschfeld ", curated by Louise Kerz.
The famous picture made by Eisie inside La Scala Opera Theatre of Milan (Italy) in 1934, deemed as a chef d´oeuvre of social and candid photography and proving that Leica LTM lenses work best for b & w, can be seen on its upper left area.
This landmark event was held between March 1 and April 6, 2002 inside the Leica Gallery at 670 Broadway, New York City, whose directors Jay and Rose Deutsch made throughout decades a praiseworthy work making known the pictures of the foremost Leica photographers.
It´s no wonder that this well-known image, created by a legendary Leica photographer who has probably been the best, most successful and influential photojournalist ever (having managed to set up an ideal of the highly versatile staff photographer who could perform any assignment brilliantly, something difficult to attain, though he made it throughout all of his professional career, with his characteristic way of seeing that became a part of the style of Life magazine),
Alfred Eisenstaedt in early fifties holding a Leica IIIf with Leicavit rapidwinder, a Summaron 35 mm f/3.5 lens, Leitz ITDOO metal hood and an SBLOO auxiliary bright-line viewfinder, which delineates the specific field of view of a 35 mm wideangle prime. His towering figure, aura and elegance is very apparent in this photograph.
© Alfred Eisenstaedt.
who became a master of a new kind of picture taking at the time and always kept an unbridled enthusiasm for photography until his death on August 23, 1995, has also been shown in a raft of world-class shrines of good photography having held exhibitions on Alfred Eisenstaedt, like the Robert Mann Gallery in New York (March 7-April 27, 2019), the Martha´s Vineyard Museum (June 28, 2024-August 25, 2024), the CAMERA Centro Italiano per la Fotografia in Turin (June 13-September 21, 2025) and many others.
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