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© jmse
By José Manuel Serrano Esparza
Between October 17, 2014 and January 4, 2015 the Leica Gallery at Wetzlar held the 100 Photographers-100 Portraits exhibition, a truly historical event encompassing a vast assortment of pictures made by the American photographer Claire Yaffa throughout a span of approximately 40 years (she started this long term project in 1974, when she made her first portrait of Eugene Smith, one of her teachers at the time along with Philippe Halsman) to a number of the most world-renowned photographers of the XX Century who defined its visual language and culture as well as having created a lot of the most iconic images ever, it all with the added bonus of further portraits made by the New York based photojournalist to other talented photographers who have developed their careers within XXI Century.
Between October 17, 2014 and January 4, 2015 the Leica Gallery at Wetzlar held the 100 Photographers-100 Portraits exhibition, a truly historical event encompassing a vast assortment of pictures made by the American photographer Claire Yaffa throughout a span of approximately 40 years (she started this long term project in 1974, when she made her first portrait of Eugene Smith, one of her teachers at the time along with Philippe Halsman) to a number of the most world-renowned photographers of the XX Century who defined its visual language and culture as well as having created a lot of the most iconic images ever, it all with the added bonus of further portraits made by the New York based photojournalist to other talented photographers who have developed their careers within XXI Century.
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Alfred Eisenstaedt, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Smith, David Douglas Duncan, Inge Morath, Mark Riboud, Erich Lessing, Lisette Model, Bruce Davidson, Yousuf Karsh, Cornell Capa, Robert Frank, Carl Mydans, Gordon Parks, Duane Michals, Burt Glinn, Leonard Freed, René Burri, Thomas Hoepker, Ian Berry, Jim Marshall, Susan Meiselas, Josef Koudelka, David Burnett, Eli Reed, Slim Aarons, Benedict Fernández, John Loengard, Barbara Morgan, Emmet Gowin, Mary Ellen Mark, David Alan Harvey, Sebastiao Salgado, Larry Towell, Nell Dorr, Peter Marlow, Bruce Gilden, Ralph Gibson, Donna Ferrato, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Hiroji Kubota, Constantine Manos, Bruno Barbey, Lisl Steiner, Richard Kalvar, Harry Gruyaert, David Turnley, Peter Turnley, Martin Parr, Cristina García Rodero, Jules Allen, Tamas Revesz, Martine Franck, Doug Menuez, Sylvia Plachy, Craig Semetko, Alex Majoli, Harvey Stein, Carlos René Pérez, Ed Kashi, Aldo Sessa, Jill Freedman, Adger Cowans, Rick Smolan, Larry Fink, Nikos Economopoulos, Brian Lanker, Neil Leifer, Eugene Richards, Harry Benson, Sheila Metzner, Jean-Pierre Laffont, Dorothy Norman, Shelby Lee Adams, Jeff Mermelstein, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Mike Kamber, Frank Fournier, Lynne Butler, Ozier Muhammad, Angel Franco, Ron Havivi, Magdalena Solé, Amedeo M. Turello, Donovan Wylie, Todd Heisler, Dominic Nahr, Julia Baier, Olivia Arthur, Ashley Gilbertson, Bieke Depoorter, Evgenia Arbugaeva, Jing Huang and Saga Sig.
Vast majority of these portraits were photographed throughout forty years, with a Leica M3 and Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 DR between 1974 and 1984, with a Leica M6 with Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Type 4 between 1984 and 2009 and with a digital Leica M9 between 2009 and 2014, taking advantage of the short telephoto nature inherent to 50 mm standard lenses and with a top priority over the technical perfection of images : to capture the essence and main personality traits of the photographed people and to convey emotions through the choice of black and white, in addition to coupling the cameras to a 50 mm objective enabling a nearer proximity with respect to subjects in comparison to 75 mm, 85 mm, 90 mm and 105 mm lenses much more frequently used in portraiture.
Eugene Smith.
© Claire Yaffa
This amazing exhibition (whose opening ceremony in Am Leitz Park Wetzlar main building on October 17, 2014 had the attendance of Claire Yaffa herself who came from United States and Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Managing Director of Leica Galleries International) was a relish for any enthusiast of photography and its history, and something really unforgettable, particularly for the many thousands of visitors from all over the world who arrived in Wetzlar during three months to watch Claire Yaffa 100 Photographers-100 Portraits live, in what has probably been the most complete array of portraits of legendary photographers ever assembled, including a high percentage of the pros who were the main characters of the Photojournalism Halcyon Days.
Susan Meiselas and Josef Koudelka.
© Claire Yaffa
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Yousuf Karsh by Claire Yaffa.
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Ian Berry by Claire Yaffa.
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André Kértész by Claire Yaffa
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Alfred Eisenstaedt.
© Claire Yaffa
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Gordon Parks.
© Claire Yaffa
Marc Riboud.
© Claire Yaffa
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Sebastiao Salgado.
© Claire Yaffa
Erich Lessing.
© Claire Yaffa
Larry and Ann Towell.
© Claire Yaffa
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Jim Marshall.
© Claire Yaffa
Jane Evelyn Atwood.
© Claire Yaffa
David Alan Harvey.
© Claire Yafa
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Thomas Hoepker.
© Claire Yaffa
Inge Morath.
© Claire Yaffa
Constantine Manos and Robert Frank.
© Claire Yaffa
Duane Michals.
© Claire Yaffa
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Leonard Freed.
© Claire Yaffa
Carl Mydans.
© Claire Yaffa
Lisl Steiner.
© Claire Yaffa
Bruce Gilden.
© Claire Yaffa
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It´s true that vast majority of world-class photographers making up this gorgeous exhibition used 35 mm Leica rangefinder cameras during their professional careers, but having a Leica rangefinder doesn´t mean to automatically get better pictures at all, because the key factors for getting a good picture are the photographic eye, to be at the adequate place and moment, the experience, the intuition, the speed of movements, the composition, the perseverance, and above all that it be interesting, irrespective of the camera model and brand used by a photographer.
To name only an example, Eugene Richards used Olympus OM-1 and OM-2 24 x 36 mm format cameras to make many of his pictures, and his favourite lens was the manual focusing 11 elements in 9 groups Olympus OM Zuiko Auto-W 21 mm f/2 from 1977, which apart from its amazing resolving power, contrast and correction of distortion, featured very small dimensions (length of 44 mm) and weight (250 g) making it exceedingly comfortable to use shooting handheld
It isn´t less true that Leica M lineup of highly luminous prime lenses featuring very small size and weight is second to none in terms of resolving power, sharpness and mechanical thoroughness and that the rangefinder of an M camera is a wonder of craftsmanship and precision, without forgetting the crystal-clear amazing viewfinder enabling the photographer to watch what is happening at every moment, even outside the frame of each focal length.
But if you are a bad photographer you will not get good pictures, regardless of the photographic gear you can have.
A good photographer will be able to make good photographs with any camera, and the pros appearing in this 100 Photographers - 100 Portraits historical exhibition could have made good pictures with cameras and lenses from every brand.
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If most of them chose 24 x 36 mm format mirrorless rangefinder Leicas it was simply because they were the most suitable photographic tools to fulfill their assignments, particularly within the scope of photojournalistic activity, in which discretion, lowest feasible noise of shutter release, optimization for handheld shooting with available light even at 1/8 sec without trepidation, shortest shutter lag in existence, second to none highly luminous lenses and to approach as much as possible to the subject trying to get unnoticed are essential to get the picture.
A wise choosing of photographic tools will of course depend on the kind of photographic task to attain.
That´s why Yousuf Karsh used a large format Calumet camera with 8 x 10 plates (contacts of 20 x 25 cm) to do his extraordinary portraits, David Douglas Duncan used a Minox 8 x 11 mm getting pictures in 1954 inside a Saigon casino risking his life and putting the shutter speeds and diaphragms without looking at the camera while pretended to be interested in the gambling, Alfred Eisenstaedt used a Rolleiflex 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format camera to do his stunning reportage of the farewell by girlfriends and wives to servicemen going to war within the Pennsylvania Train Station in New York in 1943 with a high percentage of his pictures made from an exceedingly short distance, taking advantage of the great discretion provided by the waist level finder of this MF camera, René Burri (a mostly Leica rangefinder photographer) used a Pentax Spotmatic 35 mm camera with Takumar 135 mm f/2.5 lens in 1959 in Cyprus to capture three war widows, Harold Feinstein used Olympus Pen 18 x 24 mm half-frame format camera during sixties to get maximum depth of field in the specific street photography he was doing then (while in 1952 he had made with a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 medium format camera his great essay on bidding farewells in Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, to American soldiers going to Korea War), David Burnett used a large format Speed Graphic 4 x 5 with a gorgeous Aero-Ektar 178 mm f/2.5 to get pictures with really shallow depth of field and the remarkable aesthetics of image inherent to LF bokeh in photographs like the Ford Mustang half-buried by a house in Lakeview (belonging to his series Aftermath of Katrina 2006) or a perpendicular shot of the athlete Marion Jones during the 2004 USA Olympic Preview in Los Angeles, Daido Moriyama used a 8,6 x 8,3 cm format Polga (a hybrid Holga with Polaroid instant film back) toy camera to make his fabulous black and white book T-82 with images of Japan boasting unique image aesthetics and stunning layers of diffused grays in synergy with the abundant vignetting featured by its 60 mm f/8 lens of Japan in 2006, sports photographer Bob Martin used a Canon New F-1 camera and Canon FD 400 mm f/2.8 L superteleobjectives to photograph Edwin Moses during the 1987 World Championships in Rome and a Nikon D4 with 80-400 mm and 200-400 mm lenses with 0.1 second latency robotics setup to get pictures from amazing angles during Wimbledon 2013, John Loengard (one of the most influential photojournalists in the history of Life magazine, of which he was picture editor) and a great master of Leica rangefinder cameras uses currently a 10 megapixel Canon G12 camera for his personal photographs, sports photographer Pascal Rondeau used a Nikon F3 with motordrive and Ai-S Nikkor 600 mm f/4 IF ED super tele photo lens with monopod during the Monaco Grand Prix 1989 to capture the very low profile Formula 1 Brabham BT58 cars after prefocusing and intentionally underexposing 1 diaphragm for the sparks to show up better, Terry Fincher used a homemade 9 x 12 cm glass plate folding camera during fifties to get maximum sharpness and stability (avoiding any shrinking or deform during the development) in his handheld press photography of stars, Sheila Metzner used a 35 mm camera and old lenses to achieve her wonderful images featuring a pictorial soft-focus dreamlike approach fostered by the gorgeous Fresson color printing method (unbeatable in terms of control during the development) as a way of expressing her artistic feeling and vision and providing rich and textural chromatic nuances with a golden glaze flawlessly matching the romantic sensuality of her photographs rendering a signature ethereal mood which merges ancient myth and tradition with contemporary sophistication, Annie Leibovitz used a black Konica Hexar AF with its top-notch 35 mm f/2 lens ( optimized for full aperture but automatically correcting the shift focus on selecting small f stops) to do the kind of street photography she wished in Paris in 1997, Douglas Kirkland used a Nikon F with Non-Ai Nikkor-UD 20 mm f/3.5 UD Auto shooting from a a very low angle to get his 1967 portrait of Maurice Chevalier with the Eiffel Tower behind him and a Hasselblad 500 C/M and 250 mm lens for his portrait of Kelly McGillis on the beach of San Diego in 1985 (in both pictures with some fill-in flash to give punch), Diane Arbus used a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 Rolleiwide with Zeiss Distagon 55 mm f/4 in 1962 to do the extraordinary picture Boy With a Toy Hand Grenade, adding tremendous levels of tension and impact, bringing the observer closer than with a Rolleiflex with standard 75 mm lens and going with this very powerful image far beyond than with her customary excelling at revealing the character of her subjects, .......
Emmet Gowin.
© Claire Yaffa
Benedict J. Fernández.
© Claire Yaffa
David Burnett.
© Claire Yaffa
René Burri.
© Claire Yaffa
Mary Ellen Mark.
© Claire Yaffa
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As well as being a research center and ultramodern production plant, the state-of-the-art Am Leitz Park building is the venue of the Leica Gallery Wetzlar, which has turned into an internationally praised shrine of top-notch photography since its inauguration on May 23, 2014.
Nick Ut.
© Claire Yaffa
Burt Glinn.
© Claire Yaffa
Henri Cartier-Bresson.
© Claire Yaffa
Bruno Barbey.
© Claire Yaffa
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Detail of the main façade of Am Leitz Park building, made with very special concrete and glass. It is an architectural wonder oozing class and elegance to spare. Created by the architects Martin Gruber and Helmut Kleine-Kraneburg, it is the first thing the visitors see before entering the Leica Gallery Wetzlar, whose wide and very well devised inner spaces enable a fairly comfortable and quiet viewing of the photographic displays.
Cornell Capa.
© Claire Yaffa
Bruce Davidson.
© Claire Yaffa
Ralph Gibson.
© Claire Yaffa
Eli Reed.
© Claire Yaffa
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Martine Franck.
© Claire Yaffa
Hiroji Kubota.
© Claire Yaffa
Peter Marlow.
© Claire Yaffa
David Douglas Duncan.
© Claire Yaffa
Neil Leifer.
© Claire Yaffa
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Sylvia Plachy.
© Claire Yaffa
Amedeo M. Turello.
© Claire Yaffa
Craig Semetko.
© Claire Yaffa
Dominic Nahr.
© Claire Yaffa
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Evgenia Arbugaeva.
© Claire Yaffa
Jing Huang.
© Claire Yaffa
Julia Baier.
© Claire Yaffa
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The unforgettabe 100 Photographers-100 Portraits exhibiton held at the Leica Gallery Wetzlar (Germany) between October 17, 2014 and January 4, 2015 meant a thrilling travel in time through the history of photography and a significant percentage of its most talented professionals, who in addition, had major roles in the development of top class illustrated magazines like Life, Camera, Du, Loo, Colliers Paris Match and others which sold in the millions and were also instrumental in the development of such first-class agencias like Magnum, AP, Keystone Press, Contact Press, etc.
But Claire Yaffa made also portraits of more modern and likewise greatly gifted photographers like Amedeo Turello (one of the best fashion photographers on earth), Craig Semetko (a recognized world-class Leica M photographer), Dominic Nahr, Evgenia Arbugaeva (recipient of the Oskar Barnack Award in 2013, the ICP of New York Infinitity Award in 2015), Saga Sig, Jing Huang, Julia Baier and others.
Claire Yaffa, an acclaimed photojournalist featuring 47 years experience publishing photographs in many important illustrated magazines, as well as having extensively worked for The New York Times and Associated Press and having held a number of exhibitions worldwide, made portraits of all of these prominent photographers throughout four decades, with remarkable sensitivity, effort, travels to different countries and above all great respect for these masters of photography from whom she learnt very much and who were instrumental in her development as a professional photographer.
This unique exhibition was to all intents and purposes a homage and sincere testimony of gratitude, respect and admiration to all the great photographers who allowed her to photograph them and have them as a source of inspiration, since their immense legacy of defining images is a real and everlasting trove for future generations.
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Wow. This is an impressive who is who in photography.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. It reminded me of a comment I read regarding the introduction of the M10-R which stated that Leica is nothing more than an overpriced luxury item and that photographs taken with Leicas over the years are all mediocre at best.
DeleteYou can't deny that Leicas are extremely expensive and unattainable by most photographers.
DeleteI don't see what that in any way influences the quality of photographs taken with a Leica. The comment I quoted was nothing more that utter stupidity. Yes, Leicas are expensive, but so are other, top level items like Porsches, Lamborghinis, Bugattis... , or Patek Philippe watches, Montblac fountain pens...
DeleteJust like a $50 thousand Lamborghini or Ferrari would not a Lamborginit or Ferrari anymore, a $2 thousand Leica would no longer be a Leica because the price is a direct reflection of the extra input that these items receive compared to their less expensive counterparts.
Clare created a body of work that will ensure for years to come.... You know these extraordinary photographers better with her contribution.
ReplyDelete