© René Burri / Magnum Photos
By José Manuel
Serrano Esparza
In 1961, six years following his nine page gorgeous portfolio of black and white images published in the July number of the mythical Camera International Magazine of Photography which brought him worldwide recognition and two after becoming full member of Magnum Agency, René Burri got this great picture of Korean women entertaining American soldiers in Tae Song Dong (South Korea), near the North Korean border, with his Leica M3 Number 984743 loaded with Ilford HP3 ISO 400 black and white film and coupled to an 8 elements in 6 groups Leitz Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 SAMWO 11108 Version 1 1958-1969 in chrome mount and featuring spectacle viewfinder attachment (because the M3 hadn´t got frame-line for 35 mm focal length), shooting handheld at f/4 and 1/30 sec.
In 1961, six years following his nine page gorgeous portfolio of black and white images published in the July number of the mythical Camera International Magazine of Photography which brought him worldwide recognition and two after becoming full member of Magnum Agency, René Burri got this great picture of Korean women entertaining American soldiers in Tae Song Dong (South Korea), near the North Korean border, with his Leica M3 Number 984743 loaded with Ilford HP3 ISO 400 black and white film and coupled to an 8 elements in 6 groups Leitz Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 SAMWO 11108 Version 1 1958-1969 in chrome mount and featuring spectacle viewfinder attachment (because the M3 hadn´t got frame-line for 35 mm focal length), shooting handheld at f/4 and 1/30 sec.
This image is a vivid
example of the fulfillment of a photojournalist highest aspiration: to become
invisible in the thick of the action, going unnoticed and getting the picture.
It can be clearly seen the
great prowess and mental strength of Burri, who is able to cope with the
pressure and risk of being seen by the nearest prostitute, choosing the most
adequate diaphragm and shutter speed and above all waiting for the most precise
and meaningful instant to press the shutter release button of his 24 x 36 mm
format rangefinder camera.
It is a highly instinctive
shot, based on tons of experience and talent, made a split second before the Korean
woman wearing a pearl necklace can discover the photographer. The timing is
perfect, resulting in an engaging picture for any observer, in which Burri has
managed to capture the meaningful facial expression of the main subject of the
picture, being at an exceedingly short ditance from him, as a key ingredient to
convey the story.
© René Burri / Magnum Photos
Besides, Burri´s elegance
and subtlety on quickly composing become apparent, with three powerful diagonal
lines created by:
a) The almost utterly
naked right shoulder of the closest woman to the camera ( her blouse seems to
be about to fall) and the right arm of the second Korean woman being sitting on
a sofa in the background and whose right hand is leaned on the American soldiers´s
right inner thigh.
b) The left black military
boot of the G.I in the background and the right white shoe of the woman with
him, which are aiming in the same direction, id est, towards the main
characters of the picture located in the lower right area of the image.
c) The upper torsos and
heads of both Korean women, visibly slanted on the right, towards the faces of
the American soldiers.
René Burri, a man with
great sensitivity and a deep knowledge of body language ( who he had already
shown five years before when he made his essay on a school of deafmute children
in Zurich and would foster during his impressive reportage " Zen "
for Du magazine number of December 1961 on Japanese monks training Kendo in
Tokyo Waseda University, where he used the same Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1
SAMWO lens, getting his famous b & w vertical picture on page 59 of a Kendo
master in short sleeves playing the gong, also made at f/4 and in which a
second man can be glimpsed out of focus on top left background of the image)
had always a remarkable insight to wisely read human contexts and know when he
could get the picture, so before pressing the shutter release button of his
Leica M3 serial
number 984743 from 1959 used by René Burri to get his iconic picture in Tae
Song Dong (South Korea). The camera appears in the image attached to a
Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 DR without its close-focus attachment. During late
fifties and early sixties, the formidable Leica M3 (the best 24 x 36 mm Leica
rangefinder camera ever made, featuring an exceptionally bright and sharp 0.92x
magnification VF still unbeatable in XXI Century, sixty five years after its
inception in 1954) was the most important photojournalistic photographic camera
for the time being along with the also extraordinary reflex Nikon F1, to such
an extent that between 1959 and 1963 a figure of 75677 units of the Leica M3
were sold worldwide (the total quantity between 1954 and 1968 would be 226178,
an unprecedented success for a 24 x 36 mm mirrorless rangefinder camera).
©
jmse
Leica M3 camera he
realized that the Korean prostitute nearest to him was utterly with her five
senses aimed at seducing the American soldier on far right of the image, with
the back of his head towards the camera.
And the photographer
decided to shoot at f/4, putting the focus on the couple located in the right
foreground, since it dawned on him that it was the most meaningful action core
of the image, while simultaneously rendering the second Korean woman and
American soldier in left background (sitting on an armchair and kissing each
other) out of focus but with their contours pretty discernible at f/4,
something that would have been more difficult if the chosen diaphragm aperture
had been f/2 or f/2.8.
René Burri could have used
f/8 or even f/11 to get this picture (because the room is lit by natural light,
in the same way as happened in other photographs also made in 1961 by the Swiss
photographer in premises like this located in the village of Yon Sul Gol ) and
obtain much more detail in the background persons, but the photograph would
have been excessively blunt and with much less impact.
The image aesthetics of
this black and white picture is very nice and bears the hallmark of classic non
aspherical Double Gauss symmetrical optical scheme lenses crafted for use with
black and white chemical emulsions and generating exceedingly beautiful vintage
image aesthetics, particularly in synergy with ISO 400 highly versatile films
like
© jmse
the Ilford HP3 used by
Burri to make this photograph and whose outstanding acutance works like a charm
in symbiosis with the great character of lower to medium contrast (since it is
a lens optimized for use with b & w films), smooth tonal transitions and
very beautiful and creamy bokeh delivered by the
The focus tab of the Summicron-M
35 mm f/2 SAMWO 11108 Version 1 can be seen on top right of the image, while
the high precision optical attachment googles to couple it to the Leica M3
finder and create the specific frame-line for 35 mm lenses appear in the lower
area of the picture showing the two screws fixing the device to the lens, whose
barrel and mount are made of chrome brass, while the very smooth focusing
helicoid is manufactured with brass and aluminum.
© jmse
8 elements in 6 groups
Leitz Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 SAMWO 11108 Version 1 designed by Walter Mandler at
Leitz Canada factory in Midland (Ontario), following the classical Double-Gauss
scheme but adding two further elements, with a weight of only 150 g and highly
miniaturized dimensions, which provided great comfort of use along with
acceptable optical performance at maximum aperture (though it suffered from a
lot of vignetting and softness on the corners) and very good sharpness stopping
down from f/4.
Optical formula
of the Leitz Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 designed by Walter Mandler in
Midland (Ontario) and manufactured in both Canada and Wetzlar. Presented at the
Photokina Köln 1958, its optical formula including a lot of rare earth glasses
and exotic coatings was optimized by Mandler to achieve best results at f/4 and
f/5.6, being likewise a cult lens, because of its unique subtle gradation of
the out of focus areas, its gorgeous cosmetic beauty and an exceptional
mechanic construction greatly made by Hans Karl Wiese, an outstanding Leitz
Canada fifties and sixties specialist on the mounting of optical elements
during the assembling stage of the objectives, and Horst Haseneier, a true
optical genius sporting a painstaking artisan profile and a consummate expert
in the grinding and polishing of those optical elements. In addition, already
in 1957, Rudolf Seck, Head of the Applications Laboratory at Leitz (Wetzlar),
had made abundant tests with several prototypes of this lens sent from Leitz
Midland (Canada) to evaluate its performance in real use by professional
photographers (something that Leica has always prioritized over the MTF graphs
of its lenses on assessing their true optical and mechanical virtues),
realizing its very good quality from f/4 onwards, unique vintage image
aesthetics, versatility and duration keeping identical behavior during a lot of
decades of intensive use.
Diagonal right
back view of a Leitz Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAMWO made in Wetzlar
(Germany) in inverted position, where can be seen the exceedingly robust and
top-notch mechanical construction of the lens, with profusion of aluminum and
brass, and the also top quality googles. Though this lens could even be
considered poor by today´s design standards with Leica M stratospheric
aspherical lenses yielding exceptional resolving power and contrast at widest
aperture or if the comparison is made against the non aspherical Summicron-M 35
mm f/2 Version 4 Bokeh King (which meant a milestone in amazing balance between
classic and modern look), the Leitz Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAMWO used
by Burri to get this iconic picture is a good lens to differentiate foreground
from background subjects, its classic rendering of image is very special and
beautiful thanks to its creamy transition of tones, and the medium to lower
contrast it delivers results in more glow and blooming around highlights,
without forgetting its nice bokeh thanks to its 10 blades diaphragm and a
thoroughly studied specific degree of aberrations intentionally preserved by
the optical wizard Walter Mandler to achieve that very nice appearance of the
out of focus areas.
© jmse
Front view of
the googles attached to a Leitz Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 Version 1 SAMWO for the
Leica M3 camera. The mission of this first-rate optomechanical attachment is to
generate the specific brigh-line frame for 35 mm focal length (the M3 lacks it,
since its bright-line frames correspond to 50 mm, 90 mm and 135 mm lenses for
which it is optimized). The machining accuracy of the metals is breathtaking,
in the same way as the anodizing of its surfaces, oozing elegance and becoming
a relish to behold. Needless to say that the precision adjustment of the two
visible screws is impressive. In addition, the optical quality of the uncoated
glasses featured by the rectangular window to be coupled to the VF of the M3
camera and the rounded one to be connected to the rangefinder window is very
good (to minimize the inevitable lowering of viewing contrast through the
camera finder and preserve as much as possible the unsurpassed brightness and
sharpness of the 0.92x VF of the Leica M3). Moreover, this auxiliary optics
attached to the finder is a masterpiece of precision for a correct alignment
and focusing, because the slightest loosening could produce misaligned viewing.
© jmse
René Burri has been one of
the fastest photographers ever when it came to getting pictures, faithful to
his usual statement ´ for me photography
is a way of saving something which nobody expected, not even me, but then I was
ready just to catch like a fly in the flight ´, to such an extent that often he
simply let him be surprised.
In addition, as well as
being a world-class photojournalist, René Burri was a concerned photographer
worried about human suffering and he does want to convey a powerful message
with this image : what can be seen in it is an aftermath of the Korean War
(1950-1953) which had devastated the economy of the area, with widespread havoc
everywhere, a high death toll among men and many women having been forced into
prostitution to survive.
Portrait of a
very young 23 year old René Burri included on page 296 of the Swiss Camera
magazine of July 1956. He had began working with Magnum Agency one year before,
thanks to the genius Werner Bischof, who realized Burri´s huge gift for
photography and with whom he had developed a great friendship since early
fifties until his death in 1954.
René Burri was one of the
diachronic maestros in the use of 35 mm format rangefinder Leica cameras, whose
very small size, low weight, lack of swivelling mirror enabling a constant
vision with no darkening whatsoever at any moment, accuracy of their
rangefinder even in dim light conditions, a vast assortment of highly luminous
primes, exceedingly short shutter lags (time elapsed between the moment in
which the photographer presses the shutter release button and the beginning of
the exposure itself) and rubberized cloth curtains of the shutter, whose
sonority is almost imperceptible, make possible to shoot handheld without any
trepidation and with an exceedingly high level of discretion.
Detail of the shutter
release button of the Leica M3 and its gear train under it visible on top right
of the image. This mechanical horizontally travelling focal-plane shutter
featuring rubberized cloth curtains designed by Willi Stein, Dr. Ludwig Leitz and
Friedrich Gath in which the shutter speeds were formed by control cams and a
gear train as a delay mechanism, in addition to feature from 1957 a dial with
uniform geometric calibration for the exposure times (unlike Barnack´s original
shutter from 1924 in which shutter speeds were not calibrated in uniform
intervals), was exceptional for the time and very reliable. Albeit René Burri´s
mastery, talent and experience were the key ingredients to get the picture of
the Korean Women Entertaining the G.Is (it is the photographer and not the gear
who creates the picture), it isn´t less true that the Swiss photographer
perfectly grasped that to make a highly dangerous photograph like this (with
the Korean prostitute´s face very near him, at a distance of less than 2
meters), the whispering almost imperceptible noise yielded by the M3 shutter on
shooting and its exceedingly short lag of 17 milliseconds were of invaluable
help, because it would have been impossible to get this picture shooting
handheld with a reflex camera (even the cream of the crop of present 24 x 36 mm
format digital reflex professional cameras like the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EOS -
1D X Mark 2, Nikon D850, Nikon D3S, Nikon D5 and Nikon D810 deliver much longer
shutter lags than the Leica M3 from 1954), whose loud swivelling mirror sound
would have alerted the Korean woman nearest to him.
© jmse
It all being particularly
strengthened by the expertise and gift of this master of photography, who
steadily put the rangefinder Leicas (of which Burri used different models like
the analogue IIIF, M2, M3 and MP and the digital M9 and M9-P) through their
paces as first-rate photographic tools.
In the image is shown Rene
Burri´s gorgeous analogue Leica MP manufactured in 2003.
© Leica Camera AG
Anyway, during the decade
of sixties and early seventies, René Burri also used 35 mm reflex cameras like
the Nikon F (with Non-Ai Nikkor-O 2.1 cm f/4, Non-Ai Nikkor-O 35 mm f/2, Non-Ai
Nikkor-H 85 mm f/1.8 and Non-Ai 10.5 cm f/2.5 Nikkor-P lenses) and the Pentax Spotmatic
(specially with the Takumar 135 mm f/2.5 lens).
Within time, René Burri
became a rather cosmopolitan photojournalist travelling all over Europe, South
America, North America, China, Japan, Korea, India and the Middle East, as well
as being one of the pioneering great promotors of the 35 mm wideangle as
photojournalistic par excellence lens, featuring more versatility in this scope
than the 50 mm lenses, which had been the common choice of vast majority of
world-class photographers during second half of twenties, thirties, forties and
fifties who created with them a wealth of iconic pictures like Ilse Bing, Henri
Cartier-Bresson, Izis Bildermanas, Robert Capa, David Seymour Chim, Alfred
Eisenstaedt, Inge Morath, Helen Levitt, Ruth Orkin and others, but whose true
nature as short tele lens made it more difficult to use, aside from the fact
that a 35 mm lens enables the photographers to approach more to subjects, so it
became the most widespread choice for genres like street photography in which
would subsequently excel other masters like Joel Meyerowitz, Garry Winogrand,
Gianni Berengo Gardin, William Klein, Lee Friedlander, Richard Sandler, Bruce
Gilden and others who massively used 35 mm wideangle lenses (and frequently 28
mm ones).
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