Monday, January 29, 2018

THE CAPONI ART PARK - AS SEEN THROUGH THE LENS OF A LEICA




Only a few people are familiar with a gem within the metropolitan area of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the Caponi Art Park.  It is located in the suburb of Eagan and is open daily from May through October.

In the 1950, the art park’s founder Anthony Capony, a professor of the arts at Macalester College in St. Paul, envisioned a public space where people could escape the stress of a fast-paced world and experience their connection with art and life in a natural setting.

For the next six decades Tony brought together his skills as an artist, educator, and environmentalist and embarked on a labor of love to create the Art Park.  Since the late 1970s he was joined by his wife, Cheryl, who shared his passion and commitment for the project.

The 60-acre sculptured environment was created as a work of art in itself.  The meandering trails follow the curves of the topography like contour drawings, retracted and animated by every person who walks on them.  The rock walls and shaped hills are the sculpture into which conventional works of art are integrated.

The grounds are not merely a backup for art, but an integrated environment that adds to the experience of the programs and activities in the park.  This intentional blending of man-made and natural beauty creates an atmosphere of openness and discovery that makes the arts approachable for everyone.

      Anthony Caponi

“Slow down and let your senses come into focus.
To be alive is a condition of having arrived.
Enjoy exploring the park and your deeper self.”
     




 "Walk in Outer Space"
1968
Corten steel, rebar, granite
Also the title photograph of this article
Caponi was inspired to create this piece by the first space walk when the astronauts were connected to the safety of the space capsule by only a thin umbilical cord.  In this sculpture the umbilical cord wraps around a granite Earth that provides the source of life.While modern technology has removed the need for a physical connection while in space, our connection to Mother Earth remains unchanged.


 
"Monument to a Lumberjack"
1970
Saw Blades
When Caponi first purchased this land it was impassable due to all of the fallen trees.  Before turning them into a sculpture, he used the two-person saw blades to clear the lawn and open up the woods. 


 

"Cornerstone"
1971
Red granite
Cornerstone presents the duality of humankind - the intellectual progression from cuneiform letters to musical notes in Beethoven's 5th symphony to the mathematics of Einstein's equation on one side, to the organic natural forms that still resonate with our caveman nature on the other. 


"Trinity"
1969
Field stone, railroad spikes
The rock has almost become a living thing and expresses the pain of being penetrated by the metal spikes.


 
"Dean Bryan"
1950
Hammered lead


 
"Skyroot"
1965
Recycled auto parts, stainless steel
This piece is finished with Caponi's characteristic textured surface that is created by using arc welding rods.


 
"Adam's Rib"
1957
Reinforced concrete
Caponi played with shapes as he molded this figure in clay.  He later cast it in concrete, an experiment using material that he hoped would be an affordable and permanent material for Minnesota's harsh weather.


 
"Praying Mantis"
1967
Not your father's Cadillac
This sculpture was created out of 1960s era Cadillac car parts. 


 

 "Undertow"
1965
Welded steel
Even though Caponi covered the surface of this sculpture with 300 pounds of brass, he couldn't keep the steel underneath from rusting after 50 years of exposure to the elements.  The metal has since become too brittle to be repaired.  The sculpture was moved to a safer spot so it can continue aging in place.


 
"Lovers"
1967
Limestone
This sculpture is an abstraction on the concept of love and fertility.


 
"Nugget"
1986
2-ton granite boulder
Nugget is a good example of Caponi's use of stone where the exterior is left almost untouched as he seeks to discover the variations within the stone.  The subject matter of the sculpture is the stone itself.  Marks left by the tools have become an element of the design


 
"Diamond"
1964
Welded steel


 
"Ritual of Love"
1954
Reinforced concrete


 
"Birds"
1964
Welded steel



 Anthony Caponi died on Oct. 9, 2015.  In his obituary, the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote:

Caponi, Anthony Age 94, of Eagan, passed away on Oct. 9, 2015 A modern day Renaissance man, Anthony was an artist, civic leader and environmentalist. He was also an educator and professor emeritus of Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN where he taught and chaired the art department for more than 40 years. He brought his wealth of experience and artistic skill together in the creation of Caponi Art Park, a nonprofit cultural center in Eagan, MN. Among his many accomplishment and honors he received the Ordway Center for Performing Arts Sally Award for Commitment in recognition of lifetime achievement, contribution, and leadership in the arts.


All photographs were taken by Heinz Richter with a Leica M8 and various Leica lenses.



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Sunday, January 28, 2018

FALSE CLAIMS BY LEICA COMPETITORS





While looking at cameras on the web, I came across a blatantly false claim by Sony.  They wrote about the Sony Alpha SLT cameras:

"This changes everything.
Shoot with unprecedented speed and precision thanks to Sony's revolutionary Translucent Mirror Technology™. While traditional DSLRs depend on a reflex mirror to flip up and down with every shot, Sony's award-winning technology changes all that with its fixed-position, translucent mirror design…"

 
The Sony SLT mirror

That statement is definitely false.  The first camera incorporating such a design was the Canon Pellix.  The Pellix was first marketed in 1965. It was Canon's first 35mm Focal-Plane Shutter SLR Camera with TTL metering.  It was also the first commercial production SLR that incorporated a fixed pellicle mirror. It employed a super-thin, semi-transparent film only 20/1000 mm thick that was used as a fixed mirror.

 

The Leica connection to all of this is the fact that the Leica Visofelx III was also available with a pellicle mirror.  This was a special modification by Norman Goldberg.  Goldberg is perhaps best known, in the Leica world, as the creator of the Camcraft N-5 electric motor drive for the Leica M2 and MP. However, also to his credit were several other inventions for Leicas and other cameras. The clip he designed to permit wearing an M Leica on the belt was widely used.  He also offered a modification of the Visoflex reflex housing, involving either a beam splitter or a pellicle mirror. These too preceded Sony for a long time.

 
Leica camera with pellicle mirror Visoflex and Camcraft N-5 electric motor.
Please note the missing release lever and mirror action adjustment knob on the right side of the Visoflex

Pellicle mirrors never reached any nominal success; the main reason being that part of the incoming light is permanently diverted to the viewfinder, or in the Sony SLT cameras where part of the light is reflected to the phase detection autofocus system.  This effectively lowers the speed of the lens in use.  In addition, these mirrors are quite delicate and very difficult to clean.  Cleaning, on the other hand, is important because any dust, smudges or other dirt would adversely affect image quality since the mirror is in the light path from the lens to the film or sensor.

In view of this it seems strange that Sony would even market a camera of this type and it is equally strange that they have to accompany it with obviously false claims.

Another false claim by Sony was the announcement that “Sony did it: A7 and A7r are the first modern full frame mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.”

Sony a7r full frame mirrorless cameras

That claim totally ignores the Leica M line of cameras.  Just like the Sony A7 and A7r, the Leica M cameras are full frame cameras with interchangeable lenses, and a whole load of additional features that Sony cannot match.  The fact that the Leica M cameras have been on the market a lot longer than anything from Sony apparently did not prevent the above claim.

 
Leica M (240) with Leica Vario-Elmarit-R 70-180 f/2.8

 
Leica M (240) with Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4

 
Leica M (240) with Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 f/2.8-4.5

 
Leica M (240) with Canon lens

These certainly are not the only times camera companies have made obviously false statements.  A few years ago Pentax claimed that their 50mm f/1.2 lens was the first production lens with an aperture of 1.2, conveniently ignoring the fact that Leica introduced the 50mm f/1.2 Noctilux many years before in 1966.

 smc_Pentax-A_50mm_F1_2.jpg  

Leica 50mm f/1.2 Nictilux, first introduced in 1966

A short while ago I read a report that Canon applied for a patent for a lens with a lens mount on both ends.  It was heralded as something entirely new, previously only available with the help of lens reversing adapters. However, at the Photokina in 1966 Rollei introduced the Rolleifelx SL66 which had that very feature.  The front of the lens had a Rolleiflex SL66 lens mount which allowed the lens to be mounted in a reversed position without the need of any accessories.  Canon is just 50+ years late.  While this particular example has no direct connection to Leica, it is another example where facts sometimes become secondary.


Rolleiflex SL66 with lens in reversed position



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