LFI Magazine 3/2019 E

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L e i c a F o t o g r a f i e I n t e r n at i o n a l E n g l i s h E d i t i o n

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Christian Werner Ana María Arévalo David Nissen Andy Summers

Nanna Heitmann

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p o rt f o l i o l i g h t b ox

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1 0 0 | L f i . G a ll e r y

8 6 | Leica Q2

Over 25 000 photographers present more than half a million images at the LFI Gallery. In this issue: a colourful mixture of structures, lines, and cityscapes

The exterior appears almost unchanged – inside, however, the new Q2 is fitted with a brand new sensor offering a significantly higher resolution and greater range of digital focal lengths

Ph oto

9 0 | Sl Su m m i c r o n 3 5 Leica continue to expand their range of Summicron-SL lenses, gradually moving into the wide-angle realm. Matt Stuart tested the SL’s latest fixed focal length out in the field

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Andy Summers: Montserrat, Lesser Antilles, July 1981

After 100 days on the job, the first Director of the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar takes time to answer some questions 116 | Photo London

9 6 | M 1 0 - p “a s c 1 0 0 ” The Leica M10-P “ASC 100 Edition” is due to be released in autumn 2019, marking the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers

Christian Werner 6 | Bonn

Werner takes us on a journey through time to the former seat of government, Bonn. A series capturing the flavour of the sixties and seventies

Nanna Heitmann 2 0 | K INGDOM O F M Y THS

The design of the Leica M 10-P “ASC 100 Edition” echoes elements of the Ur-Leica

Sparse steppes, enchanted forests and special people: the photographer catches magical moments along the banks of the Yinesei

Ana María Arévalo 36 | Dias Eternos

The young Venezuelan photographer captures strong images of daily life in detention centres, where access is normally denied

Photo London presents a carefully curated selection of exhibitions and galleries once more 1 1 7 | L e i c a G a ll e r i e s The programme of Leica Galleries around the world with, among others, Bruno Barbey in Istanbul and Don Bartletti & Nick Ut in Los Angeles 118 | exhibitions Inge Morath, Treviso; Scheltens & Abbenes, Amsterdam; Carlos Javier Ortiz & David Schalliol, Chicago; Saul Leiter, Antwerp; Joanna Piotrowska, London 120 | Books New publications by Felicia Honkasalo, Beat Schweizer and Antanas Sutkus as well as a catalogue raisonée by René Groebli 122 | my picture

David Nissen 50 | Light and Shadow

Using desaturated colours, the French photographer captures store fronts and motels in the USA, looking like film sets but devoid of any people

Anatol Kotte photographed the ill-humoured composer John Cage in Frankfurt 122 | imprint

Andy Summers 6 2 | a C e r ta i n S t r a n g e n e s s

The former guitarist of The Police has been a dedicated photographer for forty years. Now a new book with his images has been published

Cover: Nanna Heitmann, from the Hiding from Baba Yaga series

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FRO M G A LLERY TO BLOG fo r s p e c i a l i m ag e s

The best pictures from the LFI.Gallery – in a blog starting in April

The half a million pictures published to date are evidence of the LFI.Gallery’s great popularity. To ensure that pearls among the submissions are not lost amid numerous new entries, we plan to offer more opportunities for introducing images to a broader public in the blog on our website. Until now, it was only individual photographers who had the chance to present their portfolios by means of special blog contributions. In April, we will introduce a new blog segment to regularly show pictures by LFI.Gallery users that have particularly delighted our editorial team. Whether these images deal with an exciting subject, the picture composition is particularly noteworthy, the colour interplay especially harmonious, or the technique particularly refined: reasons for catching our team’s attention are manifold! Like our Lightbox section in the printed issue of LFI, this new online segment will become a platform for highlighting special images. lfi-online.de/blog

C o n t r i bu t o r s

Andy Summers’ legendary guitar riffs played a significant part in the distinct sound of The Police. That this musical artist also has a talent for visual composition is something that Summers has proven in the last decades. As far as he is concerned, music and photography belong together: “The qualities I’m looking for are musical. That’s the condition. One thinks of music in relationship to harmony, line, form, volume, silences, dynamics… all these terms can be equally applied to photography.”

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C H r i s t i an W e r n e r Working on the book project Bonn.

Atlantis der BRD – an ironically nostalgic look at a time long ago – took Werner repeatedly to the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. He has some lovely memories: “I only ever encountered open and helpful people. Employees at the Bonn Townhouse, at the Chancellor Hotel and at the Bungalow, all received me in a friendly manner. One caretaker even postponed a dentist appointment to unlock the former Federal Press Conference for me.”

N anna H e i t mann

On the road in the endless taiga: “Siberia is really enormous and there are very large portions where there are still no settlements. It is probably one of the last regions on the planet where there are still unexplored areas.

The climate is extreme. The summer temperature can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, while in winter the thermometer can sink to minus 50 degrees. Even then, Valentin, a former officer traumatized by his war experiences whom I met on my journey, sleeps outside by a fire.”

Photos: © Lawrence Impey; © Ilya Lipkin; © Andrej Soldatkin

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Christian Werner b o nn

For around five decades, Germany’s seat of government was located in the city of Bonn.

In a collaborative book project with Joachim Bessing, German photographer Christian Werner takes a both ironic and nostalgic look at this era in the history of the Federal Republic.

With great sensitivity, Christian Werner and author Joachim Bessing set out to capture a piece of German history. The resulting book takes us back in time to the days when Bonn shone brightly as the country’s capital city. At the same time, their project is a sober reminder of what remains of this era: empty tables and chairs

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The objects depicted in the images emanate a museum-like atmosphere. It seems extraordinary that these scenes still exist. In 1991, the German Federal Parliament declared Berlin as the country’s capital city. In 1999, the parliament and parts of the government moved to Berlin, though Bonn is still home to six Federal Ministries

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“When we chatted with the staff working on the 14th floor of Bonn’s City Hall, the socalled Townhouse, none of them seemed to entertain any sense of irony or reserve towards their unusual working environment,” says author Joachim Bessing about the impressions gleaned from their research trip

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As soon as I conceptualised the book whose illustrations are featured on these pages, I had already decided on its future title: Bonn. Atlantis der BRD (Atlantis of the FRG). With regards to finding a suitable photographer, I immediately thought of Christian Werner. I knew from previous monographs that he had a rare ability to recapture the aesthetics of West Germany between the Economic Miracle and the fall of the Berlin Wall. As it turned out, he – just like myself – had very little experience of Bonn before embarking on this project.

In all the time that Helmut Kohl was Chancellor of West Germany – which coincided with the entirety of my teenage years right up to leaving school in 1990 – I never once made it to Bonn, which seems extraordinary considering that it was, after all, my home country’s capital city. However, while visiting today’s capital for a ‘Berlin adventure’ has become an essential part of growing up in Germany, the thought of going on a ‘Bonn adventure’ never quite carried the same sense of excitement. Even Helmut Kohl remarked, shortly after moving into the Chancellor’s Bungalow in Bonn: “My theory that the two square kilometres surrounding the Parliament and Chancellery are not typical for the Federal Republic of Germany, has certainly been confirmed.” Compared to Berlin’s Parliament Quarter – with the state-of-the-art Chancellory and history-steeped Reichstag building at its symbolic core – it seems almost unimaginable that a handful of houses and villas in Bonn could have served as the administrative and federal headquarters of a government responsible for 60 million people.

Of course, the expansive nature of today’s federal buildings in Berlin could potentially be explained by the sudden increase in Germany’s population as the result of the country’s reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It certainly makes sense that this would call

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for more government personnel and, consequently, more generously sized premises. But there is a puzzling flaw to this logic: when Bonn served as the country’s capital city, there were no compact computers, no emails, no mobile phones; instead, this was an era of in-house mail departments and telexmachines the size of small freezers; every office housed multiple variations of plug-in phones with whirring rotary dials and push-button panels. And, of course, there were stacks upon stacks of files. Everything was written, printed, recorded – and, subsequently, stored – on paper. One of the core-questions of the Atlantis project, therefore, was: how did the Bonn-based administration manage to operate in such spatially limited premises, despite requiring far larger devices and a vast amount of storage space? Which, in turn, makes you wonder: what does today’s administration do with all the space it occupies in Berlin?

As part of our research, we travelled all the way to the top floor of the monumental City Townhouse, as Bonn’s city hall is called. Now that its capitalcity status has been revoked, Bonn has chosen a different self-description: ‘Stadt. City. Ville. Bonn’. Though, in the author’s opinion, the phrase ‘Atlantis of the FRG’ would also have made for an attractive option. Visitors of the City Townhouse find themselves enveloped in the rosewood-panelled world of 1970s German architecture: low lounge seating arrangements; and the obligatory selection of Ray and Charles Eames furniture – a vintage dream of aluminium frames and Hessian fabric: original and, therefore, without a hint of irony. In a niche that could have been created for Thomas Demand, I discovered a typewriter beneath a silver dust cover: an original Olivetti. It did not take us long to find out whose it was. Frau Seul is responsible for the list of recommendations for the Order of Civil Merits within the North-Rhine Westphalia region. The typewriter, she explains, comes in useful because “sometimes I want to label an application”. Frau Seul is going to retire later this year. joachim bessing

C h r i s t i an w e r n e r The Berlin-based photographer works for numerous German and international magazines, including Zeit Magazin, Numéro or Sleek. He primarily focuses on long-term projects, resulting in several book publications to date: Stillleben BRD (Kerber Publishing 2016) and Die Blüten der Stadt (Suhrkamp 2018). His book Los Angeles was released in February 2019 by Korbinian Publishing. Bonn. Atlantis der BRD (Matthes & Seitz Berlin) was released in spring 2019. www.christianw e rne r.org LFI-Online .DE/Blog: Slideshow with more related images

Equipment: Leica M-P240 with Summicron-M 35 f/2 Asph

Be ssing, we rne r: Bonn. Atlantis de r BR D

In Spring 2019, Bessing’s and Werner’s impressions of Bonn were released as a book published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin. It consists of 100 pages.

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Nanna Heitmann k i n g d o m o f m y t hs

The Yenisei, one of the longest rivers in the world, was the guiding line that Nanna Heitmann followed through Siberia.

Along its banks she met loners, dropouts and dreamers, and heard of the myths that are still very much alive there. The outcome is perceptive images from a distant world.

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Clockwise from the top: A small ferry is the only connection to the outside world; wild fires are a daily occurrence in the forested area – here burning not far from the town of Minusinsk; waiting for the bus in the relentless Siberian summer heat, Dolga’s daughter sleeps on his lap; the Sayano-Shushenskaya GES plant, where the water power of the Yenisei becomes usable; a model airplane that Yuri found at the rubbish dump where he lives today. Previous page: Vaselisa lives in the little village of Erzhey. Both her parents are deaf and dumb

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Yuri lives with 15 dogs not far from the banks of the Yenisei.

He has built himself a shack by the rubbish dump and enjoys the freedom that life offers him – away from cities and their inhabitants. He enjoys the expanses and the silence

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Above: Wedding guest in Znamenka; right: Alexander takes locals across the Yenisei in his motor boat

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Shamans before a fire ceremony in the Tuvinian steppe. During the ceremony spirits are asked for protection and healing. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, shamanism is experiencing a revival – many people believe in its power

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Above: Insect and amphibian collection; right: the boy hurt himself while doing a header

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This page: The former officer Valentin lives in the forest. He sleeps outside even in wintertime when the temperature is minus fifty degrees Celsius. Page 33, clockwise: Further impressive examples of the nature along the Yenisei; Eugenii with his rat, Barclay, in his apartment in Krasnoyarsk. In May he will be moving to the USA for half a year to work and earn enough money to save up for a car; healer Adygzhi’s protective spirits hang in his treatment room in the shamanic clinic. Today people are once again looking for advice and healing from shamans

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A traditional horse race, while temperatures rose to 43 degrees Celsius. Seven horses died from the heat

nanna h e i t mann Born in Ulm in 1984, Nanna Heitmann studied Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at College in Hanover. She spent a semester abroad in Tomsk, Siberia. In 2018, she was shortlisted for the Lensculture online magazine’s Emerging Talents award for her work. Further awards: Vogue Italia Prize in 2018 from the PHMuseum’s Women Photographers Grant for the series Hiding from Baba Yaga.

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Natasha walked on and on. After a while she lay down on the ground and listened to the earth trembling and shaking. It was clear to her the witch, Baba Yaga, was close. She pulled out a comb and tossed it onto the ground over her right shoulder. At the spot where it fell there immediately arose a tall forest. The roots of the trees buried themselves deep in the soil while the canopy towered up towards the heavens. Baba Yaga came flying along and tried to pass through the forest, but crashed against the trees. To pass through, the witch had to bend the trees over and gnaw her way through the branches – the young girl never paused but continued walking. Then Natasha heard the earth tremble again. Baba Yaga was again very near!

This time the girl took a towel and tossed it on the ground over her right shoulder. A very deep and wide river immediately appeared on the spot.

Baba Yaga reached the bank and had to grind her teeth in anger. She was unable to cross the river and returned to her little house on stilts.

My mother comes from Russia.

Apart from Moscow, it was just a large, blank space on a map. So, I decided to do a semester abroad in Tomsk, Siberia. My imagination of Russia was defined by Soviet children’s films and Slavic fairy tales and this also inspired my story, Hiding from Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is an important figure in Slavic folklore. She is an unpredictable and dangerous witch who lives in a little hut in the middle of the forest. For my project, I borrowed a Russian Jeep, packed camping equipment and drove towards Tuva with some inspired images in mind and places I wanted to see along the way. I received support from the mother of a friend, working there as a geologist, who helped me contact people and find locations.

Visually speaking, Russian painters were a great source of inspiration: Ivan Bilibin, illustrator of Russian fairy tales; and Michail Nesterov, whose

symbolic pictures at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow used to amaze me as a child.

To a large degree I followed the flow of the Yenisei along my journey.

Its source lies in the republic of Tuva on the border with Mongolia. It meanders northward through the whole of Siberia until finally emptying into the Arctic Ocean. Following its course took me through the raw wilderness of the Siberian taiga. I viewed my journey as a documentation of life along the river, and about the mythology of the region. I searched for dream-like images. It soon became clear the river itself was not so important. I photographed local characters because people have always sought protection and freedom along the banks of the Yenisei and in the bordering taiga: criminals, escaped serfs, renegades, adventurers and Old Believers.

My arrival in Tuva remains in my mind. To get to the Tuva Republic, you drive a long way, always higher, through the Sayan Mountains, with forest in every direction and with snow even in July. There was a heavy storm. People I met during the drive warned me that, while Tuva belongs to Russia, it is like the wild west. I had underestimated the distance and the poor condition of the roads, but in time I became accustomed to driving 14 hours, or sometimes getting completely stuck. And then suddenly, on the other side of the mountains there is no more forest: instead there is heat and endless steppe – one part of the Republic of Tuva. It is like stepping into another world.

The people I met are so different, yet there is something that unites them. Their pursuit of freedom and protection in the wild taiga, and at the same time, their loneliness and unfulfilled dreams. I met dreamers, loners and dropouts – mostly by chance or following an intuition. Vaselisa lives in a village of Old Believers not far from the source of the Yenisei. Both her parents are deaf and dumb, and are the only non-believers in a village that lives strictly according to centuries-old rituals. Her only friend lives in the

village of Sissim. During the summer holidays, they are separated by the Yenisei and a day’s walk. Yuri lives not far from the banks of the Yenisei. He has built himself a shack out of stuff from a rubbish dump. Here he lives with his 15 dogs. There is nothing keeping him in the city where a layer of coal dust covers the blanket of snow in winter. If he is no longer tolerated here, he will find another rubbish dump: “Siberia is large.” Following the course of the Yenisei northwards, I came across Valentin, the anarchist ecologist, a former officer traumatised by his war experiences. Nowadays, he lives on his small piece of land in the forest. Even when the temperature is minus 50 degrees Celsius, he sleeps outside by a fire. He has had more than enough of war, but he rails against those threatening the Siberian forests.

“Everyone in this world, live in peace with each other and protect your forests,” he admonishes.

Not all the encounters along the journey speak of freedom and longing however. In fact, some reflect the problems: excessive alcohol consumption and low life expectancy. In one settlement, I was approached by two elderly women who asked me what I was doing there. “Today monthly salaries have been paid out,” they warned.

“Get away from here. Everyone is drunk and riding around on horses and my husband just hung himself.”

Nowadays, many people move to the big cities like Moscow or Saint Petersburg. This makes the characters you can meet in Siberia all the more interesting, as they can live according to their own dictates in this expansive, empty space. recorded by katrin iwanczuk

nannahe itmann .com LFI-Online .DE/Blog: Slideshow with further images from the series Equipment: Leica M240 with Summilux-M 50 f/1.4 Asph

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Ana María Arévalo

D i as Eternos

Venezuela is a country in crisis, with more than five hundred detention centres where inmates can wait years before their case comes before a court. The Venezuelan photographer, Ana MarĂ­a ArĂŠvalo, has captured images of conditions she describes as Dantesque.

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Clockwise from the left: At the Ana Maria Campos II regular prison, inmates enjoy considerably more privileges; at the El Valle detention centre, inmates are packed tightly together in tiny spaces; women at Ana Maria Campos I prison pass the time playing dominoes. Previous page: At the time this picture was taken, Sarait Rivas, 20, had been at La Yaguara prison for 45 days without having seen a lawyer. She is the mother of two children

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Clockwise from the right: Inmates fill their time with typical activities at La Yaguara – some read, some write letters or share a cigarette; inmates in La Yaguara, including underage girls, look towards the daylight; Daisy, 47, looks out of the entrance door at La Yaguara, the only source of light for her and 22 other inmates. Previous page: Religion plays a big role at the prison centres. Church services – like here at La Yaguara – where inmates ask for forgiveness, take place regularly

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M a ny f e m a l e i n mat e s of th e pr is on ce n tr e s are drug addicts. There are also pregnant women w ith n o m e d i ca l car e .

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Daylight, which falls through the common area’s barred window, gives the women a sense of the time.

Ana María Arévalo uses it very effectively as an aesthetic tool

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A na M a r í a A réva lo ’s pic tur e s h av e a captivating int i macy – wi t hout beautify in g w h at you s e e .

T h is u n d e rl i n e s t he i r impac t.

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Clockwise from the left: Around 22 female inmates, including two minors, share a tiny cell at La Yaguara detention centre in Caracas. They spend the whole day lying on mattresses on the ground; even without mirrors or visitors, the inmates at La Yaguara give great value to their external appearance. ArĂŠvalo portrayed many of them only from behind to protect their identity; Daniela at Poli-Valencia is carrying out a four year sentence for robbery, while her daughter is sick with leukemia

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An inmate at Ana Maria Campos II prison helps to set up a volley ball net.

Despite her situation, she has not lost her pride

A na M a r í a A r é va l o Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1988, Arévalo studied photography in Toulouse. She uses photography to produce visual narratives with high documentary value. She received grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and from Women Photograph to further her work on her Dias Eternos project.

Her Dias Eternos series has already been published in the New York Times’s Lens Blog.

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Prison institutions in Venezuela are not an obvious first-choice subject matter for a young, recently-graduated photographer, but Ana María Arévalo dared to jump in at the deep end.

Her long-term project, Dias Eternos, goes inside her country’s oppressive prisons; places that to date have no reportage. In Venezuela, it is the poorest of the poor who are found in these socalled detention centres, unable to leave because they cannot afford bail, waiting years for a court date. Arévalo describes their conditions as Dantesque, with too many people packed together in the closest of quarters regardless of type of crime, or the degree of criminality. In some of these facilities, even genders are not separated.

Arévalo first learned about these prisons from a journalist working for the NGO, A Window for Freedom. As she explains, it soon became clear to her that, “the general public need to learn about what’s happening in these institutions. I’ve now looked into it and this creates a certain responsibility for me to do something about it.”

Initially, the photographer concentrated on female inmates who were pregnant, asking if they needed help, getting them food and establishing contacts on the outside. She had her camera with her right from the beginning and made no secret of her profession. Later she expanded her focus to include all women: “Quite simply, I immediately connected with them. I often spent hours conversing with the women before taking any photographs,” she says.

“Otherwise, no one talks with them, no one represents their rights.” Arévalo also had contact with imprisoned men, but there was never that same closeness as with women. “I was never able to feel quite as safe among them, which is why it was clear to me right from the beginning that the women were at the forefront. Being a woman myself, it was much easier for me to empathise with their suffering.”

Arévalo wanted at least to be a witness for the female inmates, doing interviews and taking pictures to expose their plight to the world. “I don’t think I can change the life of the women, but at least I can use my work to show that they exist,” Arévalo explains. Among those she interviewed were mentallydisturbed women, drug addicts, and abused women. They receive no medical care, are packed together in very tight spaces, and some of them have already been there for a number of years.

The prisons are holding stations for unwanted people. Some inmates were unable to pay protection money or were falsely accused by corrupt policemen.

Some of them really have committed a crime. “To me it isn’t about whether they are guilty or not; it’s about the conditions of their imprisonment, where human rights seemed to have been abandoned,” Arévalo says.

Through the years, Arévalo visited ten different institutions but would still find herself breaking down in tears after leaving. She felt so much anger, desperation and “disgust towards a system that has simply forgotten these people”. However, it motivated her to push on all the more. And she did: with a Leica camera – that security guards considered was nothing more than a small analogue, amateur camera – , a recording device, and an open heart. Sometimes the photographer sang for the women, sometimes she spoke in German with them, as she had moved to Hamburg in the meantime. And she has taken their stories out into the world.

Taking photographs in these places was not only a challenge from the personal point of view, but also from a technical perspective: when in a tight space with little light and many people, you are obliged to get up close and take note of the details. “The good thing was that I could always go back if I hadn’t been successful with a picture,” Arévalo explains. “So, I could take a picture as many times as I wanted to get the result I was looking for.” Thanks to a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, she was able to take another trip to Venezuela in 2018, to continue

working on the project. Arévalo discovered then that her way of taking pictures had evolved. “This time I knew exactly what I wanted: I knew how I like my portraits to be and how I need to position myself. My eye had become much quicker and more precise.”

The photographer manages to give dignity to these women surviving in an undignified setting. The group pictures reveal an intimacy and flair that could practically be reminiscent of ‘friends at a sleepover’. The portraits appear iconic. She never makes her protagonists look embarrassing, but allows them to shine in the midst of their misery. Despite their aesthetic expressions, the pictures do not beautify. That is what makes them so impactful. Beauty plays a big role in Venezuelan society, and does so in the same way in the world behind bars. The women nourish and look after their hair, which means that it is not surprising that some of them prefer to be photographed from behind. The fact that the shining heads of hair hide their identities is a desired side-effect.

The Leica Q made available to Arévalo from the LFI loan pool was perfect for this project because it has a high-speed lens, and is easy to use thanks to the auto-focus. These features proved to be so useful under the conditions found at the prisons that Arévalo has now acquired a Q for herself. When asked if she reckons that the project is now completed, she answers, “I waited until I had enough material before publishing, so as not to have to depend any more on access. It’s possible that certain doors will now be closed to me. However, for me, the project will only be over once conditions have changed for the better.” Denise Klink

amagosphoto.com LFI-Online .DE/Blog: One Photo — One story Equipment: Leica Q, Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph

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David Nissen L i g h t and S had o w

Located in a surreal spectrum somewhere between colour and black and white, David Nissen presents empty urban settings that are reminiscent of film sets. Behind his loaded, atmospheric typology lies a philosophical approach to loneliness.

A typical motel on a US highway, illuminated by a mixture of light from street lamps and the moon

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When asked about those who have inspired him, Nissen also mentions William Eggleston, who early on dealt with simple motifs, that were not considered worthy of being called pictures at the time lFI

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Thanks to David Nissen’s aesthetics, this lone house in New Orleans appears even lonelier. “The expanses are what I appreciate in the United States. Sometimes it takes ten minutes by car to get from one house to the next,” the photographer remembers

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“I like every type of lettering – in particular the type you see in vintage advertisements.

I found these vintage fonts somewhere along Route 66,” Nissen explains lFI

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Nissen connects particular feelings to this motif: “I photographed this in Texas.

Texas was the first State in the US where I didn’t always feel comfortable.

The people there seem to be rather distrustful and might draw a pistol at any point. I found that a little disturbing, but I liked the houses there.”

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“Photographing can be very tedious if you want to find the right motif. In the film business everything gets built for you however you need it,” Nissen realises

D av i d N i ss e n Born in Valenciennes, France, in 1969, Nissen studied Photography and Drawing at the École des Beaux Arts. He works as a Director of Photography on feature films and in advertising.

For him, cinematography and photography are two passions that merge and feed off one another, writing a story with the light, a return to the roots of photography. His first book Deep Night was published in 2017. His new book Shapes of Light will be out in April 2019.

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David Nissen found the motifs for this series while roaming around at night, looking for settings that reflect a certain tension between encounters and solitude. He has the perspective of a sleepwalker. By photographing out of context, he creates a backdrop onto which dreams can be projected.

The strong contrasts of light and shadow produced by the moon create the ideal, aesthetic mood.

LFI: One can recognise references to film and also to painting in your work. Please let us know something about the interconnection between film and photography.

David Nissen: Firstly, I studied in an art school where I learned to draw and to sculpt. I wanted to work as a cabinetmaker, but after some years I stopped and changed to a photography class. During that period I looked at a lot of paintings and exhibitions.

So painting is still in my blood. For me photography and cinematography are two passions that merge and feed off one another.

LFI: What is the difference between a film still and a photo? Why can’t you take a still out of a film, and then have a photograph?

That’s a very good question! I think that the main reason is when I do take a photo it’s 100 percent my world.

When working in the film business, there are so many people involved. I’m working with a big crew, many people, everything is made up. I can add light, move things around and arrange everything so I get exactly what I want. But that’s not the way I work...

LFI: ... although your work can be summarized as art photography, there is obviously a documentary approach to it!

Yes, unlike, let’s say, Gregory Crewdson. He has a big crew setting up everything. I work for myself. This is why I can’t use a film still and refer to it

as ‘mine’. It wouldn’t be honest in my eyes. There is no huge crew behind me when I photograph. I’m alone, facing myself: it’s a meditation. When taking a photo, you have to do everything. I like it when the photo is literally facing me. Not so when filming. Like I said, there is a crew with you. Nice framing is easy because everything is prepared and set up for you. Everything is planned with a tight schedule; there’s no time to think.

LFI: One can also see references to painting in your work, some images seem to suggest Edward Hopper.

Edward Hopper is a huge reference because of the way he painted loneliness, architecture with a very nice light atmosphere, which I like a lot.

LFI: Please describe your visual approach to the topics photographed.

Does it change?

I like to walk, to drive, to listen to music, and be alone when I’m dreaming about photography, light and atmosphere. When I see a frame, an architecture that tells a story, a light that makes me dream, I usually wait and see if the frame makes a ‘good shot’. But I don’t have a recipe, any method. I do always try to have my camera with me, keep my eyes open, and hope that the shot will come to me. This why I do like the Leica M a lot: it’s very small and discrete. I think my method changes when I think of different kinds of humor, or because of where I am. The only thing I need additionally are good shoes as I walk around a lot!

LFI: How did you come across the locations where the pictures were taken?

I spend time driving or walking in search of the ideal spot, like a director who is searching for the perfect location to tell his story. I work more or less in the same way. Some days I come back very happy because I found and I did some pictures that I do like; some others day nothing comes to me. This series was taken in 2017 and 2018 when I spent two month driving around

in the South and the West of the US. Among the places where I photographed where cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Marfa, New Orleans, Houston, San Francisco and Philadelphia. But in the end, that’s not at all important.

LFI: What made you put these images together? What kind of story do you want to tell with them?

This is all about me noticing dehumanization, melancholy and dystopia in cities where people are more and more isolated. They feel alone, like ghosts.

This theme is written with light because it’s a dark and desperate subject. I will make a book out of this titled Shapes of Light, which will come out in April, 2019. Some of the images shown here will be part of the book.

LFI: What kind of aesthetic components do you use to emphasize this dehumanization?

I’m not a Photoshop guy. I use natural light only and some polarization filters and long exposures. Most of the work is done with the camera. I barely use post production; a bit of Lightroom.

LFI: Your imagery is highly atmospheric. You create projection screens, where you said the lack of people illustrates dehumanization.

There are very few signs to indicate the location. What does this tell us about your intention?

I want to invite people into my world.

So it’s not necessary to know where the locations are. I’d like to give people the opportunity to make up their own story out of the picture.

Interview: carla susanne erdmann

www.davidn isse nphoto.com LFI-Online .DE/Blog: One Photo — One Story Equipment: Leica M10 with Summilux-M 35

f/1.4 Asph, 50 f/1.4 Asph and 75 f/1.4 as well as Noctilux-M 50 f/1.0 Asph

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A C e rta i n S t ran g e n e ss LeicA M

Andy Summers

A hairy game of hide and seek, taken in February 1972 in San Francisco

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From Andy Summers’ perspective, music and photography are soul mates. For the past forty years, in addition to music, photography has played a decisive role in his life. The richness of his diverse, powerful, and sensitive work can now be discovered in a new photo book. His style is expressive and experimental, surreal yet also humorous.

And always in black and white.

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Glimpses of the life of a musician and photographer (clockwise from the left): New York, January 1982; Toronto, Canada, August 1982; San Sebastiรกn (Cuzco), Peru, January 2009; Mexico City, November 1980

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Summers has a weakness for bizarre encounters and curious situations found during many trips around the world: Copenhagen, Denmark, January 1982 (left) and Paris, France, April 2014 (right)

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Western punk styling, already in vogue among the younger generations of Chinese. Seen in Beijing in August 2012

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Brief encounters on the street: taken in Mexico, April 1991 (left) and in Tokyo, Japan, February 2008 (right)

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The sunglasses stand out in the midst of a traditional orchestra: a rock star in disguise? Lijiang, China, October 2013

Puzzling and strange: seen in Tokyo, Japan, October 2017 (left), in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, April 2014 (top right), in Rio de Janeiro, December 2007 (bottom left), and in New York, July 2008 (bottom right)

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The interplay of light and shadow, and narrow excerpts are typical design features of the photographer Andy Summers: seen in Shinjuku, Tokyo, February 2008 (left) and Marseille, France, June 2008 (right)

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Details and alienation (clockwise from top left): Mexico, December 2017; a ghostly hotel room in Chicago, August 1982; California, September 2010; Los Angeles, May 1983

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The triad: Andy Stewart Sting – The Police fan culture, photographed in San Bernardino, California, August 1982

What a blessing Andy Summers’ creativity is not limited to music. His involvement with photography began on tour in 1979, when The Police were breaking America with their first top ten hits. “Sitting in a midtown hotel room in New York, September 1979, watching American television and running my hand up and down the neck of a battered Telecaster, it came to me that I should get a real camera.” This idea actually became a momentous necessity. “Our band, The Police, was moving fast in the US. With pockets suddenly stuffed with dollars and what they called ‘media attention’, we were a hot new band. It was fun, but sitting around and staring at the walls of hotel rooms was boring, and we needed diversions.” Just something to pass time and to divert him from the monotony of indistinguishable hotel rooms? Luckily, photography was, right from the beginning, more than just a distraction.

Looking at those first motifs today, Summers particular photographic style was to illustrate his perception of his surroundings; an observance of his own life already in evidence. Even so, it took a long period of learning, of trying out, of coming to a deep process of understanding before photography was to occupy the same natural place in his life as music.

In fact, Summers was not a rank beginner at the time. His first experiences with photography began as a teenager in Bournemouth, a resort in the south of England. “In the summers of those years I worked as a beach photographer,” he remembers. “I had a large square box of a camera and my simple technique was to leap out from behind a stack of deck chairs and make people laugh as I snapped the shutter and then give them a ticket to get the picture the next day. It was mostly fun, earned me a little bit of money, and gave me a chance to meet girls my own age.

But in fact, it was my first time looking through a camera lens, composing through a rectangle and trying to

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make a good picture.” His real dream however, was to become a famous musician. “At home, I practiced the guitar like a monk at prayer and listened to my small collection of American Jazz records. A jazz autodidact, I read and studied all the liner notes of these albums and wished that I were one of the musicians portrayed on the back of the twelve-inch sleeves.

They were cool-looking guys with button-down shirts and sharp suits, a style that was later adopted by the Mods in London. Almost all the pictures were in black and white and to me, the equation was simple: these photographs were the cool visual parallel to the music.” Another thing that impressed Summers early on and which was to have decisive impact on his photography, was film. It was in a small cinema on the outskirts of town that the young Summers discovered the great film directors. He was thrilled to be watching films by Truffaut, Fellini, Godard, Bergman, Varda, Melville, and Kurosawa. “I stared at the screen goggle-eyed as if I had arrived in another reality. Most of these films were in black and white, and the monotone itself hit me in a powerful, emotional way, making the real appear even more real,” he explains.

Music, however, was the first thing he moved ahead with: Summers became part of the Bournemouth jazz scene, played in various bands, studied classical guitar and composition at the California State University. After returning to England, he was soon in demand as a guest and studio musician. It was whilst recording for Eberhard Schoener that he met Sting and Stewart Copeland, with whom he went on to be catapulted into a completely different life. The world career of The Police began in the summer of 1978.

The pop-rock band had an inimitable style, integrating elements of Reggae, punk, Ska and later also jazz. Perhaps Summers’ photography can also be defined as a stylistic crossover. In the beginning, it was about experimentation: rambling through the streets of New York. “I was taking pictures, but it felt more like a carousel ride,” →

The life of a rock star, photographed in Nashville, August 1982 (above), in Saint Louis, April 1982 (middle) and in NYC, August 1982 (below).

One of the most bizarre encounters happened with a zebra in January 2017 in LA (right)

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everything looks like a photograph.

So, I kept my eyes open, looking for formal elements – balance, angles, graphic qualities, depth of field – and also for whatever might throw an unexpected element in, like an outside note in a guitar chord.”

In 1983 the time was ripe for the first photo book. There was to be an encounter that influenced Summers’ work in a decisive manner. Ralph Gibson turned out to be not only the ideal advisor for the design of the book, but someone who shared the same passions for guitar and photography.

Thanks to Gibson, Summers gained a deeper access to the New York photography scene. Gibson also suggested that Summers try out a Leica. The M4-2 inspired in Summers a complete rediscovering of photography. “I was hooked immediately. I felt that the Leica slowed down my picture taking, made it more meditative, made me think more before pressing the button – with this camera I felt as if I was finally stepping onto the true path.

The body fit my hand perfectly. I loved the rangefinder focusing system and the way it let me keep both eyes open while moving the frame around. This made for a very different composing process. I began to slow down, shooting one picture at a time mostly using a 50mm lens. I was coming into a new way of being with a camera, a different mode of seeing, and with it, now black and white film; the cinema I loved as a teenager: the films of Truffaut, and the photographs of Cartier-Bresson – united through the lens of a Leica.”

As a photographer, Summers had now reached his goal – this new book reflects his developmental process, and it is fascinating to compare the early works with his more current motifs. The idea behind the art work, the deliberate truncating of motifs, and the subtle humour have remained the same, though perhaps the images are more compact. The regional radius has been enlarged, because Summers takes his Leica with him on his many travels. Without a doubt, there will be no shortage of picture motifs for him in the future. ulrich rüter

A ndy S u mm e r s Born in Blackpool on 31 December 1942, raised in Bournemouth, he began playing guitar at age eleven.

Together with Sting and Steve Copeland, he became world famous as the guitarist of The Police (1977 to 1984).

The artist who currently works as a soloist, has also been a photographer since 1979. His pictures have been exhibited and published on multiple occasions. andysu mme rs.com LFI-Online .DE/Blog: slide show with further pictures by Andy Summers Equipment: Leica M4-2 and Leica M Monochrom

Andy su mme rs: A C e rtain Strange ne ss

With texts by Andy Summers and Gilles Mora.

160 pages, 184 black and white pictures, 27 x 24 cm. University of Texas Press (English) and Éditions Hazan (French) Exhib ition

A Certain Strangeness, Photographies 1980–2017, 6 June to 27 October 2019, at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, the Netherlands, bonnefanten.nl

Photos: © Andy Summers; all quotes taken from the photo book A Certain Strangeness

he says, “as the city fell upon me with its kaleidoscope of shapes, shadows, and lines; a bewildering convergence of humans, buildings, and avenues.

I had seen all this before, but now it was like seeing it for the first time, and the whole scene had to be squeezed through a 50mm lens at 1⁄25 of a second with Tri-X film.”

While The Police enjoyed increasing successes, the tours became all the more exhausting and daily life for the band was taking its toll, an impressive visual diary of those times emerged.

Summers captured pictures of ecstatic fans – not only at the concerts, but also waiting for the band outside the hotels. He photographed on the road and he found that photography acted as a filter that provided a visual expression to the absurdity and maelstrom of band life. The result was suggestively surreal pictures, because in the US, Summers explains, “the greater surrealism was the country itself and everything we were passing through, along with the fact that wherever we went, and as our rock band fame increased, we were confronted by hysteria”. The most effective bulwark against the many limitations that come with star cult status, was to grab the next roll of Tri-X film. “I had no formal training in photography, but in the middle of this Dante’s inferno I was rarely without the camera. I studied various monographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï, Bill Brandt, Alfred Stieglitz, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Walker Evans and Ralph Gibson. I imitated, emulated, and also followed my own instincts.” In the process, he discovered numerous commonalities between music and photography. “Simply put, the visual sense or the eye needs to be warmed up just as if you were warming up on a musical instrument. My self-instruction was simple: ‘shoot any old shit when you start’; eventually the eye will catch on. You just have to wake it up – just bloody do it – and after a while,

f/ s top – L e i ca Q 2 – S u mm i c r o n - S L 3 5 – L e i ca M 1 0 - P –

T i m e l e ss b e au t y w i t h e xc lu s i v e f e at u r e s : t h e L e i ca M 1 0 - P “AS C 1 0 0 Ed i t i o n ” l au nch e s i n Au t u mn 2 0 1 9

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V i va l a r e s o lu t i o n Leica q2

At first glance, the new Q2 looks almost identical to its predecessor. Its interior, however, features a new sensor whose exceedingly high resolution opens up a host of extraordinary possibilities – including a virtual 75mm lens.

The Q2 is a remarkable addition to Leica’s product catalogue, owing both to its innovation as well as its continuity. On the one hand, this new model offers a greatly increased resolution of 47 MP, along with a number of other advancements. At the same time, however, the Q2 looks – and feels – almost exactly the same as its popular predecessor.

Hi gh er r e solut ion.

When the first Q model was developed a few years ago, Leica decided to introduce a 24-megapixel sensor – offering a resolution which, at the time, was in a comparatively high bracket even for a full-frame camera. This gave the Q a unique appeal, and was undoubtedly instrumental to its extraordinary success. With the Q, Leica directly defied the prevalent 86 |

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market trend of producing ever smaller, more manageable compacts, which were equipped with small sensors and increasingly slow zoom lenses to provide the greatest possible range of focal lengths. The Leica Q and Q2, by contrast, are distinguished by a full-frame sensor; instead of a zoom, both models feature a fixed, 28mm lens with an impressive maximum aperture of f/1.7. This combination of a high-end, high-resolution sensor with an excellent, fast lens enables the Leica Q (and, even more so) the Q2 to simulate longer focal lengths through magnified auto-cropping.

The first Q model was already able to render the narrower angles of view of a 35 and 50mm lens, in addition to the 28mm focal length of the camera’s

physical lens. Thanks to its significantly higher resolution, the Q2 now provides photographers with an additional virtual lens, this time with a focal length of 75mm.

Of course, the narrower the angle of view, the lower the resolution – and indeed, the numbers illustrating this decrease initially look quite dramatic: while the camera’s 28mm lens captures images at around 47 MP, this drops to 30 MP when shooting with a simulated focal length of 35mm, followed by 14.7 MP at 50mm, and a mere 6.6 MP at 75mm.

However, when looking at the actual resolution in terms of multiplication factors, the figures are far more reassuring: starting with an almost outlandish 8368 x 5584 pixels at a focal length of 28mm, you still get a substantial 6704 x 4472 pixels

at 35mm and an ample 4688 x 3128 pixels at 50mm. Even the 3136 x 2096-pixel resolution of the newly added 75mm ‘lens’ is still sufficient for a whole variety of applications. In short, its higher resolution enables the Q2 to go one step further than its predecessor, which delivered around 15 MP at 35mm, but only around 8 MP at 50mm. This meant that first-generation-Q photographers could quite happily alternate between 28mm and 35mm, but mostly avoided shooting at 50mm. With the Q2, on the other hand, the 50mm standard focal length can now be utilised without these former drawbacks – while 75mm has become the comparatively low-resolution option that will most likely be used the least. In other words, the Q2 provides a greater →

The Leica Q2’s exterior reveals little of the camera’s extensive overhaul, which includes a new sensor and improved operating concept. The excellent, fast lens remains almost unchanged, while the high-performance sensor now facilitates an additional, 75mm virtual lens

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spectrum of focal lengths than its predecessor: while previous Q owners could really only choose between two wide-angles, the Q2’s range spans from the camera’s physical wide-angle to its virtual standard lens – with the additional 75mm focal length still representing an excellent choice for portrait shots.

L e ns m e e ts se nso r.

The Leica Q2 has been sealed against water and dust, so that bad weather is no longer a reason to miss out on fantastic photographs

Without a doubt, the most astonishing characteristic of the Q2 is the extremely high speed of its fixed lens, combined with the high light sensitivity of the camera’s sensor. As with the previous model, the Q2’s maximum ISO is 50 000. Realistically, only settings of up to ISO 12 500 will yield satisfac-

blog

lensless photography for leica M

So many picture and such a limited amount of space? More pictures, more interviews, more reviews, and more background information online at the LFI Blog. Current, surprising and informative! lfi-online.DE/Blog

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for all cameras with leica-M mount

subjektiv pancake

tory results – however, when paired with an open aperture of f/1.7, this is sufficient to facilitate shooting in candlelight. As for possible concerns that the Q2’s higher resolution (which, after all, requires a smaller pixel size) might lead to increased image noise: such considerations are certainly not unfounded – the first signs of noise do appear marginally sooner than with the previous model. Having said that, this is mostly only noticeable at pixel level – which, in turn, is not particularly prominent within the image, owing to the camera’s exceedingly high resolution. In real terms, therefore, this does not infringe on the sensor’s excellent rendition of fine details.

It is also interesting to

note that the Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph required hardly any modification to be able to transpose the sensor’s enormous resolution into superior-quality images.

Further improvements offered by the new Q2 include 4K video recording, and – perhaps even more importantly in terms of practical application – a weathersealed exterior to protect the entire camera against water and dust. This not only enables you to take pictures in all types of weather, but also makes transporting the camera so much easier: simply sling it around your neck, and go – even in the pouring rain. The camera’s operating concept has been slightly altered, though this only becomes apparent

Than ks to its high-resolution s ens or , t h e L eica Q2 u n it e s the superior q ua l i t y o f a f i x e d f o ca l length lens with t h e f l ex ib il it y of a zoom .

on closer inspection. Continuous shooting mode, which was previously set via the main switch, has now been moved to the menu. The Q2’s newly developed viewfinder is based on OLED technology – another change that is barely noticeable, given that the previous model already offered an impressive resolution of 3.69 MP. Perhaps it is not actually that easy to improve on a camera that became a modern classic as soon as it was first released.

And so the Q2 continues to embody a classic trait of Leica cameras: the ability to deliver outstanding photographs without having to depend on perfect lighting, fantastic weather or a bag full of equipment. holger sparr

“America’s Premier Leica Specialist”

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V e r sat i l i t y and S p e e d l e i c a A p o - s u m m i c r o n - Sl 3 5 f/ 2 a s p h

When street photographer Matt Stuart was asked to try out the new 35mm lens for the SL system, there was a special place he had in mind: the city streets of London, where he put the highperformance lens through its paces.

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Photos: Matt Stuart, Leica Camera AG

They may have taken their time – but Leica have finally added a new

to their range of Sum-micron-SL lenses. The Apo-Summicron-SL 35 f/2 Asph takes the fixed focal lengths for the SL into the realm of wide-angles. The 35mm focal length counts as a classic focal length for reportage and street photography – which is precisely why many SL photographers have most likely bemoaned the lack of a faster alternative to the camera’s existing zoom. So it is hardly surprising that British The construction and exterior of the 35mm lens bears close resemblance to other Summicron-SL lenses, and proves equally manageable when mounted to the SL

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photographer Matt Stuart, who usually works with a Leica M, was instantly inspired to create some spontaneous street shots, captured in the afternoon light near the London Ritz; the striking results are featured on these pages.

The Apo-SummicronSL 35 f/2 Asph is part of a series that also comprises lenses with the focal lengths of 50mm, 75mm and 90mm – all of which share great similarities in terms of construction, focus, electronics, as well as dimensions and exterior design. Despite their commonalities, the new addition is the most atypical member of this family. For one, it seems extremely elaborate for a 35mm lens; and secondly,

it bears the prefix ‘Apo’ – generally used to describe a lens which features apochromatic correction and exceedingly high levels of performance.

Top per for ma n ce

is certainly what you can expect from a lens comprising a total of 13 elements, three of which have aspherical surfaces, and nine of which are made of special glass types with anomalous partial dispersion to help minimise chromatic aberration. Assigning the ‘Apo’-prefix to a wide-angle lens is an unconventional move – designed, in this particular case, to indicate an extremely high overall performance that goes far beyond the correction

of longitudinal chromatic aberration (which is what the term ‘apochromatic’ stands for). In actual fact, the Apo-Summicron-SL 35 f/2 Asph corrects all types of distortion – be they chromatic or monochromatic – to a barely perceptible minimum. The same, however, can essentially be said of its fellow SummicronSL lenses: meaning that the entire lens range offers a recording quality that is firmly positioned in the top tier of the technologically possible. One direct result of these traits is the shallow depth of field effect Leica frequently emphasise, which turns out to be more pronounced than you would expect given the lens’s maximum aperture.

The 35 mm A p oSu mmic ron -S L is L eica’s m od er n i n t e r p r e tat i o n of a classic foca l l e n g t h , e n hanc ed w it h a fast au tofoc us and superior imag e q ua l it y.

To the viewer’s eye, the depth of field appears as the difference between sharpness and blur – meaning: the sharper the rendition, the greater our perception of the depth of field. To some extent, the effect alleviates the need for even wider apertures. This certainly applies to the Apo-Summicron-SL 35 f/2 Asph – partly owing to the fact that f/2 actually represents a relatively high light sensitivity for a 35mm lens.

When shooting at maximum aperture, the subject can be distinctly separated from the background – opening up a host of new compositional possibilities that could never have been achieved with the existing SL zooms. →

for the demanding photography Thomas Biasotto with Leica M and Noctilux 50 mm

CONSULTING/SALES | RENTAL SERVICE | SECOND-HAND | WORKSHOPS | GRAPHICART.CH | ZURICH | ITTIGEN-BERN

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l e ss i s m o r e . Opting

The autofocus of the 35mm Summicron makes spontaneous shooting a great deal easier.

At the same time, the lens delivers truly outstanding image quality

for moderate maximum apertures generally allows developers to keep lens dimensions more compact – and vice versa: the two 50mm lenses in the SL’s portfolio exemplify how much larger and more unwieldy a Summilux can be in comparison to a Summicron. In real terms, the Apo-Summicron-SL 35 f/2 Asph is actually quite sizeable for a 35mm lens, especially compared to the very compact M-lenses – which can also be used on the SL with the aid of an appropriate adaptor, making them a possible and very viable alternative. Having said that, this comparison is not entirely fair: after all, SL lenses are equipped

A rt i s a n & A rt i s t Easy Slider

The length of the Easy Slider c a n b e e a s i ly a d j u s t e d w i t h o n e f i n g e r a n d o p t i m a l ly f i x e d f o r s p o rt y a c t i v i t i e s .

SN O W E DITI O N b y Le i c a S t o r e Nürnberg

T h e d e s i g n w o r k s pa rt i c u larly well for silver cameras w i t h b l a c k l e at h e r , monochrome cameras and, of course, white special editions, such as the Leica M8 w h i t e o r t h e L e i c a Q S n o w.

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www.leica-store-nuernberg.de

with autofocus and electronic aperture, both of which require not only more space, but also a whole different approach in terms of optical engineering. In the case of the SL’s Summicron lenses, this has led to a specially developed method of construction, which Leica have termed the ‘Dual Synchro Drive’: during focusing, only two lens elements are moved (independently from each other), while the other elements remain in place.

This means that the mass that is being shifted is very small and light-weight – resulting in an incredibly fast autofocus. To ensure perfect coordination, the two moving elements are electronically synchronised. With this mode of

construction, Leica take their customary dedication to precision to yet another level – both in terms of the painstaking grinding process as well as the centering of the lens elements.

F rom a p rac t i ca l p ers p ec tive, the 35mm Summicron-SL can hardly be classed as Leica’s most compact wide-angle, but it is still a very manageable tool when mounted on the SL. Its outer appearance is so similar to that of its 50, 75 and 90mm SummicronSL ‘siblings’ that you almost have to look for the orangeinlaid focal length engraving to tell them apart. This gives the photographer the advantage of instant familiarity with the new lens,

both in terms of operation and tactility. It also means that the well-established balance between camera and lens always stays the same, regardless of the chosen focal length – allowing the photographer to build up an almost symbiotic relationship with their camera.

The release of the 35mm Summicron-SL greatly adds to the appeal of the SL system, whose fixed focal lengths now span from 35 to 90 mm – perfectly complementing the system’s three zoom lenses. The 35mm lens has now filled a gap which many SL photographers have previously bridged by using M lenses with the aid of an adaptor. On the one hand, this is very much in line with Leica’s inten-

tions for the SL; after all, the camera’s unparalleled compatibility with a wide variety of lenses is something Leica actively support by offering a range of adaptors, including those for M and R lenses. On the other hand, native SL lenses are perfectly tailored to the camera and facilitate both autofocus and the full range of exposure controls – thereby offering a much more versatile scope of applications. The combination of Leica SL and Apo-Summicron-SL 35 f/2 Asph represents an exceedingly fast, modern alternative for reportage photography, and at the same time sets a new benchmark in quality for full-frame camera systems. holger sparr

MEISTER CAMERA Le ica Stor e S Hamburg-be r Lin-mÜncHe n

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Os ka r N o m i nat e d L e i c a M 1 0 - P “ASC 1 0 0 E d i t i o n ”

A new special edition of the M10-P is due out this autumn: designed to echo historic elements of Oskar Barnack’s Ur-Leica, it marks the centenary of the American Society of Cinematographers – and is sure to make the hearts of film makers beat faster.

On 9 February 2019, Leica introduced the M10-P “ASC 100 Edition”. ASC stands for the American Society of Cinematographers, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Within the industry, the term ‘cinematographer’ does not merely describe someone who operates a film camera, but refers to the so-called ‘directors of photography’: the artists responsible for the lighting and overall visual atmosphere of an entire movie.

Perhaps this explains why the Society of Cinematographers currently comprises just 450 members; in fact, joining the ASC requires recommendations by three existing members. The ASC is the oldest motion picture society in the world. It sees itself not so much as a union or trade association, but rather as a forum 96 |

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allowing individuals who are established experts in their field to develop new ideas, exchange insights and techniques, and contribute to the advancement of film-making as a form of art.

T he M for cin ematogra p hers. The initial launch of the M10-P “ASC 100 Edition” – described

by Leica as ‘the M for cinematographers’ – took place as part of the 33rd Annual ASC Awards ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood. However, the camera will not be available until autumn 2019. The special-edition set comprises a Leica M10-P with Summicron-M 35 f/2 Asph, a Visoflex electronic viewfinder (offering a resolution of 1.4 MP and 90-degree swivel function), as well as a Leica M-PL lens mount

adaptor – making the camera compatible with almost all PL-mount cine lenses currently on the market.

In addition, Leica collaborated with ASC members to develop two authentic cine modes, which can be selected from the menu: while ‘ASC Cine Classic’ simulates a traditional, analogue 35mm cine film look, ‘ASC Contemporary’ delivers the digital look of modern-day movies.

Another feature that distinguishes the special-edition model from the standard M10-P, is the option to apply aspect ratios typically used in cinematography.

Once activated, the selected aspect ratio is displayed as a bright-line frame in Live View mode.

The Leica M10-P “ASC 100 Edition” gives film makers the opportunity to view

specific scenes through the lens of their choice prior to the actual shoot. Combined with the Leica Fotos app, the camera is also a useful tool when scouting for locations, as new suggestions can be shared instantly with all parties involved. The combination of electronic viewfinder, PL mount cine lenses, along with cinemastyle rendition modes and aspect ratios, turns the camera into a digital Director’s Viewfinder – providing film makers with an exceptionally versatile creative tool.

C i ne m at i c Ro ots. There

could hardly be a more fitting occasion for the release of this camera than the anniversary of the ASC. After all, the society has been involved in shaping the visual sensibilities of international audiences for over 100 →

The Leica M10-P “ASC 100 Edition” marks the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers. Its design revisits elements of Oskar Barnack’s Ur-Leica, juxtaposing a deep-black camera body with a golden-anodised SummicronM 35 f/2 Asph. The special-edition set also includes a Visoflex electronic viewfinder

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Family resemblance: Oskar Barnack’s UrLeica from the year 1914 and the M10-P ‘ASC 100 Edition’ – separated by 105 years

years – which is precisely what can be said of the Leitz company and its modernday incarnation, Leica Camera AG. And what is more, the inspiration for the first Leica was, in fact, rooted in cinematography. In 1893 William K. L. Dickson (who worked at Edison’s laboratories) halved the width of 70mm Kodak roll film – creating the perforated 35mm film that was to become the standard recording medium for the motion picture industry. This meant that cine cameras and projectors, which operated on the basis of vertical film travel, now had to facilitate a frame size of just 18 x 24 mm. It is very likely that Oskar Barnack, inventor of the Ur-Leica, was already exploring the use of cine film in still cameras while working for Zeiss at the turn of the 19th century – quite possibly inspired by the pursuits of his friend and colleague, Emil Mechau, who was developing a flicker-free cine projector. At that point in time, the notion of using 35mm film for photo cameras was generally in the air, so that Barnack was by no means the only bright mind to

explore the thought of ‘Kleinfilmfotografie’ (small film photography). He was, however, the first to turn the concept into a viable result. Amongst others, this involved doubling the recording format to 36 x 24 mm to allow for the convenience of horizontal, rather than vertical, film travel.

The unusual design of the M10-P “ASC 100 Edition” is a modern re-interpretation of Barnack’s original vision, which manifested itself in the form of the legendary Ur-Leica. The result is a camera body distinguished by a consciously functional design – characterised by black engravings on a black chrome finish, complemented by a leather trim resembling that of the Leica SL. This is contrasted with the striking design of the Summicron-M 35 f/2 Asph, whose golden-anodised finish references the brass lens of the Ur-Leica.

Also included in the set is a gold-finish lens cap, embellished with the ASC logo.

The M10-P “ASC 100 Edition” is a timeless beauty whose appeal will certainly not be limited to film makers alone. bernd luxa

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M S

O P T I C S

Unique bokeh !

G lo b e t r ot t e r L F I — 5 0 y e a r s ag o

Stern photographer Ulrich M ac k o n t h e c h a n g i n g wo r l d o f p r e s s p h o t o g r a p h y.

This transformation [of the general approach of press photographers] began soon after the war with the appearance of the first illustrated magazines.

The world opened up again, and the first photographers were sent out by editorial departments. They were given no special commission, but trotted around the globe and took photographs of whatever they might encounter. Moreover they were in no special hurry, often returning only after a period of months, when they spread out their enlargements on the table and recounted their experiences. The editors, who had remained at home, wrote up the text.

This procedure soon proved inadequate, and the papers went over to the policy of issuing specific instructions, putting pressure on the time aspect, and above all sending out teams comprising each a photographer and a writer. Each could now devote himself wholly to his own job, the photographer being concerned only with the camera, the writer only with factual reporting. Not only the general approach of photographers underwent a change, but also their technique. In the past they had worked mostly with tele photo lenses – as though they were reluctant to come to close quarters with things and events. Now they were resorting more and more to wide angle lenses, seeking to get quite close in on the scene.

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MS Optics Sonnetar 73mm f/1.5 F-MC Handmade in Japan for Leica cameras

by Miyazaki Sadayasu Imported by

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b e s t o f LFI . Ga l l e r y

G A M E W IT H A VIE W “I had planned to photograph the Manhattan skyline, which is why I only had one lens with me. Then I discovered the basketball players, but there was a fence that stopped me from getting any closer. I was immediately disappointed that I hadn’t brought a 75mm lens with me.”

Rudy Mareel Leica M9 with Elmarit-M 28 f/2.8 Asph

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l ig h t box

wh o am i ?

In her I Know Who I Am series, the photographer deals with the discovery of sexual identity.

“This picture has a special meaning for me. The woman in the picture, my work colleague Ruth, knew about my project and allowed me to capture her coming out.”

Elizabeth Cowle Leica M Monochrom with Noctilux-M 50 f/0.95 Asph

shad o w pa i n t i n g “Portugal is a very sunny country with bright colours and great contrasts. The photograph was taken in the parking lot of a supermarket.

It’s all about finding beauty in everyday situations, and to capture the secret of light in our daily life,” the photographer explains.

Vasco Trancoso Leica Q, Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph

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Pat i e nc e required At Taikoo Place, a business buildings complex in Hong Kong, the photographer discovered by chance this promotion for a newly-opened snack bar – the perfect image was born in his mind’s eye. So he waited until a passer-by reached the precise position he needed.

Chan Chun Ming Leica X Vario, Elmar 18–46 f/3.5-5.6 Asph

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A real Moment “This photograph was taken on a wellknown shopping street in Tokyo. I was taking a series of portraits at night for a Japanese magazine. The woman in the picture is a model, but I wanted it to appear like a really authentic moment.

I feel that I achieved my goal.�

Akiomi Kuroda Leica M10 with Summicron-M 50 f/2

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V i s ua l Z e n By 2016, the new Oculus transport hub had been built on the site of the World Trade Centers that was destroyed in 2001. The main hall, based on a design by the architect Santiago Calatrava, is reminiscent of the interior of a cathedral and radiates a certain calm.

Mario Uribe Leica CL with Vario-Elmar-TL 18-56 f/3.5-5.6 Asph

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T H E FIR S T S H OT

S C A FFOL D O N T H E BE AC H

“This is the first picture I ever took with an M system camera. I was walking around Copenhagen one day, trying out the camera, when I saw this perfect lighting. I asked my brother to perform a couple of tricks. It was then that I realised that the M was the right camera for me.”

“I’m a windsurfer, and the beach at Pärnu, Estonia, is one of my all-time favourites. After surfing one day, this situation was virtually served to me on a tray, when a couple of workers started building a scaffold on the beach. It’s always a good idea to have your camera on hand.”

Claus Schwarz Berg Leica M262 with Summarit-M 35 f/2.4 Asph

Kalevi Tam Leica M Monochrom with Summarit-M 90 f/2.4

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ch i n u p !

“For me, the Tivoli Gardens amusement park in Copenhagen is like a playground for photography. I’m inspired by the many happy faces and the magic lighting. My suggestion: always consider looking up, as you may just find the perfect image waiting for you.”

Bo Nymann Leica Q, Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph

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p h oto – b o o k s – E x h i b i t i o ns – f e s t i va l s – Awa r ds –

Christer Strömholm: Nana, Place Blanche, Paris 1961, from the exhibition Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of Leica Photography

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“ To E x p e r i e nc e t h e Au ra o f t h e Au t h e n t i c .” i n t e rv i e w

In December 2018 Reiner Packeiser was appointed director of the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar, which officially opens in June 2019 with the exhibition Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler.

He spoke to us about the challenges and objectives involved in his new role.

Photos: © Christer Strömholm/Strömholm Estate, 2014; © Fred Herzog, 2014 courtesy of Equinox Gallery, Vancouver; © Walter Vogel

LFI: Looking back over the first 100

days in your new position, how would you describe your time at the Ernst Leitz Museum so far?

Reiner Packeiser: These first few months have been very inspiring and flew by in no time at all. For me it was important to understand which considerations and expectations were already in place, and to familiarise myself with the internal structures of the company. It quickly became apparent that the ‘museum project’ has been in the making for several years.

Leica employees, as well as various family members of Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, majority shareholder and Chairman of the Board at Leica Camera AG, had developed some excellent preliminary concepts and ideas for the museum. They provided a foundation on which we have now based our more definitive plans for the museum’s future programme and position.

What do you find especially exciting about this new endeavour?

Packeiser: Leica is, without doubt, a legendary name in the world of photography. What particularly appeals to me is the development aspect of the task ahead. I also appreciate the powerful impact of good photography, and am aware of the remarkable exhibition space the museum represents. LeitzPark provides visitors with a range of different experiences, from photography workshops to guided tours through the World of Leica, including parts of the production plant itself.

There is, of course, the Leitz-Park café for a pleasant interlude, as well as a restaurant and a hotel. We have remarkable company archives and an outstanding photography collection. It is our aim to establish the museum as a venue of international renown.

LFI:

What do you see as your main challenges in your new position?

Packeiser: In June 2019, the Ernst Leitz Museum officially opens with a retrospective by Dr. Paul Wolff, one of Germany’s most acclaimed photographers of the early 1930s. Visitors do, however, already have access to the museum’s main exhibition space, which currently contains the showcase Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of Leica Photography – featuring works by past and present icons of photography. This is the final chance to see the exhibition within Europe – a fact we are, of course, dedicated to proLFI:

Top: Walter Vogel: Dalmatian… Not interested in football, Dusseldorf 1956; below: Fred Herzog: Man with Bandage, 1968 – both photographies featured in the exhibition Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of Leica Photography

moting. At the same time, we are working on establishing a well-functioning team and efficient work structures, as well as developing a clear profile for the Ernst Leitz Museum.

How can the Ernst Leitz Museum avoid being seen purely as a Leica brand museum?

Packeiser: The Ernst Leitz Museum must navigate the line between brand museum and photography museum.

As a venue it is dedicated to the past, present and future of photography.

So I believe that our visitors have every reason to expect a diverse exhibition programme, covering everything from fine-art photography to the → LFI:

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company’s history and camera technology. This means that some presentations will indeed be very brandspecific. Equally, however, we are planning to collaborate with other museums to create joint exhibitions that might also tour other venues.

These are projects that go beyond the scope of a brand museum, and will help cement the museum’s international reputation.

Generally speaking, what does a museum have to offer in order to appeal to modern-day audiences?

Packeiser: The International Council of Museums, has created a definition of ‘museum’ that revolves around terms such as procurement, conservation, research, promotion, presentation. These concepts are, of course, very important. Especially in our digital times, people go to a museum in order to experience the aura of the authentic. Our aim is not just to display objects or works of art, but to convey the story that surrounds them.

Compared to twenty years ago, today’s audiences are looking for more intensely orchestrated presentations and experiences. We also want to make large parts of our presentations digitally accessible.

“ I t i s o u r a i m to e sta b l i sh t h e m u s e u m as a v e n u e o f i n t e r nat i o na l r e n own . ”

Did your work at the Vitra Design Museum introduce you to any specific forms of presentation that you might draw on for your work in Wetzlar?

Packeiser: When showcasing works of art, the exhibits can usually be displayed on their own – think, for example, of Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds installation at the Tate Modern. This strategy does not work with design exhibitions. For this reason, we always provided additional material to tell the stories behind our exhibits. At the Ernst Leitz Museum, we will develop different strategies depending on the nature of each showcase. A presentation about Oskar Barnack will, of course, not just focus on technological developments, but also offer insights into the stories of the people involved.

If, on the other hand, we were to show the work of an artist such as LFI:

Top: View of the exhibition Eyes Wide Open!

100 Years of Leica Photography in Wetzlar; below: René Burri, Memorial Church, West Berlin 1959, from his publication The Germans, featured in the exhibition Eyes Wide Open!

100 Years of Leica Photography

Top: François Fontaine, Brigitte Bardot in Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963), from the exhibition Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of Leica Photography; above: Jeff Mermelstein, Sidewalk, 1995

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Photos: © Jeff Mermelstein, © François Fontaine, © René Burri/Magnum Photos, © Leica Camera AG

LFI:

Nobuyoshi Araki, we might choose a very purist form of display.

prints, films and much more, which we are very keen to showcase.

Are you a photographer yourself?

I studied painting under Jörg Immendorff and Stefan Wewerka, though for my first student exhibition I actually showcased photographs.

I still occasionally take pictures, but I particularly like to draw.

LFI:

LFI:

Packeiser:

To what extent will excerpts from the Leica archives be featured?

Packeiser: Many visitors come to Leitz-Park to immerse themselves in Leica history and technology, and we are committed to giving them exactly what they came for. For example, we are planning an exhibition dedicated to Oskar Barnack, inventor of the Ur-Leica. This showcase would not be complete without the genuine Ur-Leica, along with original letters, documents and drawings. Our archives are a treasure trove of historical cameras, accessories, publications, vintage LFI:

Interview: Inas fayed, Ulrich Rüter

Re ine r Packe ise r Born in Nuremberg in

1963. From 1998 onwards: Head of the Exhibition Department and Head of Exhibition Cooperations at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein. Director of the Ernst Leitz Museum since December 2018.

Exhib itions: Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years

of Leica Photography, continues until 9 June 2019; Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler, 27 June 2019 to January 2020; Ernst Leitz Museum, Wetzlar, ernst-leitz-museum.de

Photos: © Leica Camera AG, © Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler, Historisches Bildarchiv Offenburg/Ernst Leitz Museum

From the top: Oskar Barnack’s prototype, known as the Ur-Leica, 1914; Dr. Paul Wolff, Opening of the Opelbad Pool, 1934; Alfred Tritschler, from the series Great Heads (Hedwig Haegely), both featured in the upcoming exhibition Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler

Which project are you currently working on?

Packeiser: On the museum’s official inauguration in June, and the accompanying retrospective on Dr. Paul Wolff. Another important project is the Oskar Barnack exhibition I mentioned earlier. I would also like to make the museum suitable for school trips, and am currently involved in initial talks to that end.

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Ph o to Lo nd o n 2 0 1 9

From 16 to 19 May 2019, Photo London will bring together over 100 top galleries for the fifth time at Somerset House in London. At this photo fair, leading photographers, curators, exhibitors, dealers, and the public in general will celebrate the past, present and future of photography. In addition to the public programme, which includes exhibitions by Roger Fenton, Vivian Maier, Gavin Turk, Eamonn Doyle and Josh Haner, the Discovery section will offer a platform focussed mainly on up-and-coming galleries 116 |

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and artists. For example, the Sofie Van de Velde Gallery from Antwerp will be presenting works by Belgian photographer Max Pinckers, winner of the 2018 Leica Oskar Barnack Award.

The American Stephen Shore will be receiving the Photo London Master of Photography Award, and will be honoured with a special exhibition of his newer, unpublished-to-date, work.

The Talk segment will be coordinated by the curator and author William A. Ewing, who will be giving photographers such as Martin Parr, Deanna Tem-

pleton and Susan Meiselas an opportunity to speak. Leica Camera AG will also be represented with Shadow and Light, an exhibition of both rare works and vintage prints by Leica legend Ralph Gibson at the newly opened Leica Gallery London.

Clockwise from the left: Tony Gum, Milk the Bok, 2017; Valérie Belin, Porcelain Parrot Bird (China Girls), 2018; Gavin Turk, Oeuvre (Verdigris), 2018 Photo London: 16 ­­— 19 May 2019, Somerset House, London; photolondon.org

Photos: © Tony Gum; © Valérie Belin; © Gavin Turk

B e t w e e n Pa s t, P r e s e n t a n d F u t u r e

L e i ca Ga l l e r i e s A r e n b e r g C as t l e

POR | 4000-427 Porto, Rua d. Sá da Bandeira, 48/52 6 April — 8 June 2019

Josef Pausch: Sichtbares und Unsichtbares AUT | 5020 Salzburg, Arenbergstr. 10 17 November 2018 — May 2019

Prague

Miroslav Hucek: Homes

Ban g k o k

TCH | 110 00 Prag 1, Školská 28

H.R.H Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana: Little Wild

26 April — 16 June 2019

8 March — 28 April 2019

Salzburg

Peerapat Wimolrungkarat: A Sense of Place 30 April — 16 June 2019 THA | 10330 Bangkok, 2nd Floor Gaysorn Village, 999 Ploenchit Road Boston

Neal Preston: Exhilarated and Exhausted USA | Boston, MA 02116, 74 Arlington St. 25 April — 7 July 2019 F r an k f u r t

Régis Bossu: More than just a Kiss GER | 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Großer Hirschgraben 15 22 March — 22 June 2019 Kyoto

Alan Schaller: Metropolis AUT | 5020 Salzburg, Gaisbergstr. 12 12 April — 20 July 2019

B r u n o Ba r b ey

Current exhibition unknown at time of publication

The renowned Magnum photographer, Bruno Barbey, spent the first twelve years of his life in Morocco. In his My Morocco series, he searches for the particular feeling and the unique colours of his country of birth. The Leica Gallery in Istanbul is currently presenting a selection from the series.

BRA | 01240–000 São Paulo, Rua Maranhão, 600 Higienópolis

TUR | 34381 Şişli/İstanbul, Bomontiada – Merkez, A Birahane Sk. No:1 | 14 March — 25 May 2019

Ta i p e i

Herbie Yamaguchi: Atlas of the Time

Singapore

Aik Beng Chia SIN | Singapur, Raffles Hotel Arcade, #01-20/21, 328 North Bridge Rd., 188719 March — May 2019

Wu Bai: It’s Not Far, Actually TWN | Taiwan, No. 3, Ln. 6, Qingtian St., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106 End of April — July 2019

JPN | Kyoto, 570–120 Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku 23 February — 23 May 2019

To kYo

Leslie Kee: Bookish

L o nd o n

Ralph Gibson: Shadow and Light

JPN | Tokio, 6-4-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku 7 February — 14 May 2019

UK | London, 64–66 Duke Street W1K 6JD 4 May — 29 June 2019

wa r s A W

M i l an

Photos: © Bruno Barbey / Magnum Photos; © Don Bartletti

S ã o Pa u l o

L e i c A G a ll e r y I s ta n bul

Araki: Love by Leica

Tadeusz Wański: Summer on the Adriatic

ITA | 20121 Mailand, Via Mengoni 4 19 March — 30 April 2019

POL | 00–496 Warschau, Mysia 3 12 April — 24 May 2019

MElbourne

Wetzlar

Manfred Baumann: The Collection AUS | Melbourne, VIC 3000, Level 1 St Collins Lane, 260 Collins Street 7 February — 1 May 2019 Nuremberg

Norbert Rosing: Wilde Arktis – Im Reich der Eisbären GER | 90403 Nürnberg, Obere Wörthstr. 8 4 May — 6 July 2019 Porto

5 x 5 – Eduardo Marques, Jaime Sá, Jaime Silva, Luis Mota, Ricardo Marques

D o n Ba rt l e t t i & N i c k U t L e i c A G a ll e r y L o s A n g e l e s

A double exhibition with no less than two Pulitzer Prize-winners: photojournalist Don Bartletti’s Between Two Worlds shows pictures dealing with migration in the USA. Everyone knows Nick Ut’s picture of the Vietnamese Napalm girl – From Hell to Holly­wood includes this and many other images.

USA | West Hollywood, CA 90048, 8783 Beverly Boulevard | 11 April — 3 June 2019

Leica Oscar Barnack Award 2018 – Winners and Finalists GER | 35578 Wetzlar, Am Leitz-Park 5 27 February — 5 May 2019 V i e nna

Ekaterina Sevrouk: Last Paradise AUT | 1010 Wien, Walfischgasse 1 5 April — 15 May 2019 Zingst

Lars Borges: Imperial County GER | 18374 Zingst, Am Bahnhof 1 16 February — 30 April 2019

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C a r lo s Jav i e r O rt i z & Dav i d S cha l l i o l MOCP, C h i c a g o

Earlier this year, the American feature film Green Book was awarded an Oscar for Best Picture. The film tells the story of a friendship between a black pianist and his white driver in 1960s America. This prestigious win at the film industry’s leading event worldwide also helps highlight the fact that the topic of racism and discrimination has sadly remained relevant even to this day. An upcoming exhibition by photographers Carlos Javier Ortiz and David Schalliol is also dedicated to addressing this theme. By focusing on individual stories, the photographers shine a light on systemic racism in Chicago, the third-largest city in the USA. Ortiz (born 1977 in Puerto Rico) created a long-term documentary on the lives of teenagers and families in the city’s black communities, enabling him to identify the socio-economic patterns that pave the way for a cycle of poverty and violence. Schalliol (born 1976 in the USA) captures isolated buildings, vacant lots and disappearing neighbourhoods. His images illustrate how gentrification leads to differentiation and, subsequently, segregation. “Instead of seeing one peculiar building, we see the legacy and immediacy of urban transformation,” he explains. During the Great Migration between 1910 and 1970, a total of six million African Americans emigrated to the industrial north in search of opportunity; however, their hopes are yet to be fulfilled.

11 April — 7 July 2019; Photos: Carlos Javier Ortiz: Block Party, Chicago 2009; David Schalliol: Isolated Building Study, 2006 – 2016

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La vita, la fotografia celebrates the work of Inge Morath (1923–2002), wife of playwright Arthur Miller and the first woman to become a full member of the Magnum agency. Comprising some 150 photographs, this major retrospective illustrates the Austrian-born artist’s sensitive approach to documenting people, cultures and places.

1 March – 9 June 2019; Photo: Inge Morath: Untitled, USA 1962

S ch e lt e ns & AbBenes Foa m , A m st e r da m

They are renowned as Holland’s most avant-garde duo: still-life photographers Maurice Scheltens and Liesbeth Abbenes turn objects into art by liberating them from their everyday context. The title Zeen means ‘tendon’ – showing the importance of elements within the whole.

15 March – 5 June 2019; Photo: Scheltens & Abbenes: Cos, Collections, Soapbars, 2012

Sau l L e i t n e r G a ll e ry F i f t y O n e , Antwerp

Saul Leiter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1923, and died almost ninety years later in New York City, his home for six decades. He was especially renowned for his fashion editorials and colour images of Manhattan street life. An exhibition in Antwerp now presents another facet of his oeuvre: nude photography in black and white, taken from the late 40s to the early 70s at Leiter’s apartment in New York’s East 10th Street.

The images depict the artist’s friends and lovers, reclining in relaxed, unguarded poses.

To quote the art historian Martin Harrison: “Saul Leiter’s vision is founded on a rapid eye for absorbing spontaneous events.”

4 May – 29 June 2019; Photos: Saul Leiter: Lanesville (variant), 1958; Untitled (Jay, nude), 1957

Photos: © Carlos Javier Ortiz/courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Photography; © David Schalliol; © Fotohof archive/Inge Morath Foundation/Magnum Photos; © Scheltens & Abbenes; © Saul Leiter Foundation/courtesy Gallery Fifty One (2)

In g e M o rat h Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso

S MAGAZINE ISSUE 9 20 228

PHOTOGRAPHERS PAGES · 9,90

€

L O O K B O

J oanna P i o t r ows ka

O

Tat e , L o n d o n

Photo: Joanna Piotrowska, courtesy of Madragoa and Southard Reid

K For her series Shelter (2016– 2018), the Polish photographer asked residents of Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Warsaw and London to build makeshift dens inside their homes. The resulting images show mattresses laid out on the floors of living rooms and bedrooms, surrounded by sofas, tables and chairs. The occupants appear trapped within their own four walls; they seem smaller and thinner in their simplistic structures. In her black and white images, Piotrowska investigates the nature of symbolic, invisible power structures and the way in which they can impact people:

their presence restricts our behaviour, impacts our psychology and changes relationships. “The human subject is everything; how a figure is embodied and conveyed through an image can affect us on multiple levels”, she explains.

The showcase All Our False Devices encompasses the artist’s 16mm films along with images from different projects – including excerpts from Self Defence, featuring women imitating poses from selfdefence manuals. Her compositions subtly present the viewer with multiple layers of meaning.

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CUTTING-EDGE PHOTOGRAPHY BY

Enrique Badulescu Joachim Baldauf Brix & Maas Bil Brown Arved Colvin-Smith Anna Daki Rui Faria Christian Geisselmann Esther Haase Marie Hochhaus Benjamin Kaufmann James Meakin Monica Menez Hector Perez Elizaveta Porodina René & Radka Christian Rinke Tristan Rösler Takahito Sasaki SPECIAL

GUEST

Ellen von Unwerth

1

8 March – 9 June 2019; Photo: Joanna Piotrowska: Untitled, 2016

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B e at S chw e i z e r

Poetry of isolation: Between 2012 and 2018, the Swiss photographer (born 1982) repeatedly visited Russia’s three northernmost settlements – predominantly driven by the question of why people choose to remain in these remote locations. The resulting threepart volume not only offers surprising insights into everyday life in challenging conditions, but also conveys the beauty of solitude and a deep yearning for freedom. With a population of 175 000, the mining city of Norilsk gives an overt impression of urban nor120 |

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mality. High wages and the prospect of some degree of affluence outweigh concerns about the damaging effects of nickel mining on both the environment and people’s health. Formerly a Gulag labour camp under Stalin’s rule, Norilsk is still closed to foreigners and can only be visited with a special permit. Dikson, the second community featured in this project, was the world’s most northernmost town during the Soviet era, and served as a departure point for many polar expeditions. Today it is home to no more than a few

hundred people who work as mechanics, border guards or weather data collectors. The town of Teriberka also suffers from a severe decrease in population following the demise of coast-al fishing. With a keen eye for the comedy, tragedy and absurdities to be found in ordinary situations, the photographer manages to present a ultimately life-affirming picture of Russia’s extreme north.

184 pages, 94 colour and 27 b/w illustrations, English/Russian/German, 24 × 28 cm, Kehrer

Photo: © Beat Schweizer

M i k h a i l o v n a C a ll e d

René Groebli C ata l o g u e R a i s o n n é

The simple title belies the extraordinary treasure within: a life’s work, once more revisited and re-evaluated by its author (born 1927). Featuring both classic images and previously unpublished works, this in-depth overview of the Swiss photographer’s oeuvre is a testament to his unbridled creativity and unceasing love for experimentation.

250 p, 1200 illustrations., German/ English, 29 × 30 cm, Sturm & Drang

A N TA N A S S UTKU S

Photos: © Antanas Sutkus, © René Groebli, © Fred Stein, © Felicia Honkasalo 2019 courtesy Loose Joints

p l a n e t l i t h ua n i a

He was just 14 when he bought his first camera. Since then, Sutkus (born 1939) has become Lithuania’s most revered and internationally renowned photographer. Themes such as family and relationships, work and play, hardship, joy, loneliness, hope, poetry and mystique, all form part of this fascinating chronicle of life in his home country.

In his essay, David Campany describes Sutkus as “a participant in the lives he has photographed, rather than a removed observer”, who views his medium as a means “to engage, interact and understand”. His series People of Lithuania has never really been concluded; this selection of images – spanning from 1958 to 1991 – offers a comprehensive overview of this extraordinary long-term endeavour. The volume accompanies an exhibition which, having debuted at Lithuania’s National Gallery, will go on show in the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim, Germany, this September. When Sutkus was honoured with the Dr. Erich Salomon Award in 2017, he was also presented with a special tribute: a Leica M10 bearing an engraving of his name. The photographer continues to work to this day – now also shooting digital.

272 pages, 206 black and white illustrations, Lithuanian/English/ German/French,, 23,5 × 26,5 cm, Steidl Publishing

Fred Stein Kinder – Children

Time and again throughout his career, the Leica photographer (1909–1967) captured scenes featuring children – both on the streets of Paris, his first place of exile, and in New York, where he settled after escaping Europe in 1941.

Particularly moving are his pictures of children who found refuge in France after fleeing the Spanish Civil War. 176 p, 130 duplex illustrations, German/English, 27 × 24 cm, Kunstblatt

F e l i c i a H o n kasa lo G r e y C o b a lt

How do you visualise someone you have never met, but whose legacy of artefacts has come to be in your possession? When the Finnish photographer (born 1986) began looking through the boxes of minerals, photographs, letters and notes left by her late grandfather, a metallurgist she never knew, it was the beginning of a meditative journey to imagine his identity – culminating in an exhibition and the artist’s first photo book. “In the process of creating this body of work, these unusual heirlooms have become, in my eyes, animate characters with independent bodies and powers,” the author explains. “They cast a flickering light on the complex relationship between the frailty of my own memories and the solid forms and eternal glances of these objects.”

This volume presents a radical but equally accessible approach to conveying a personal narrative.

144 pages, 80 illustrations, English, 18.5 × 21 cm, Loose Joints Publishing

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Leica Fotografie I n t e r n at i o n a l

A nato l Ko t t e my picture

A bad mood, an enormous chair made of roofing beams, and even a lack of enthusiasm for the idea behind the picture: no sympathy is needed to produce a brilliant photo.

71st year | Issue 3. 2019

LFI PHOTOGR A PHIE GMBH Springeltwiete 4, 20095 Hamburg, Germany Phone: +49 / 40 / 2 26 21 12 80 Fax: +49 / 40 / 2 26 21 12 70 ISSN: 0937-3977 www.lfi-online.com, mail@lfi-online.com Editor-in-Chief Inas Fayed A rt Direction Brigitte Schaller EDITORIA L OFFICE Michael J. Hußmann, Katrin Iwanczuk, Denise Klink, Bernd Luxa, Danilo Rößger, David Rojkowski picture desk Carol Körting layout Thorsten Kirchhoff Translation, Sub-Editing Robin Appleton, Hope Caton, Anna Sauper, Osanna Vaughn CONTRIBUTORS to this issue Joachim Bessing, Carla Susanne Erdmann, Katja Hübner, Ulrich Rüter, Holger Sparr, Katrin Ullmann M anagement Board Steffen Keil Media SA LES A nd M arketing Kirstin Ahrndt-Buchholz, Samira Holtorf Phone: +49 / 40 / 2 26 21 12 72 Fax: +49 / 40 / 2 26 21 12 70 E-Mail: buchholz@lfi-online.de holtorf@lfi-online.de Valid ad-rate card No. 47, 1 January 2019

John Cage, Frankfurt am Main, 1987

REPRODUcTION: Alphabeta, Hamburg Printer: Optimal Media GmbH, Röbel/Müritz PA PER: Igepa Profimatt Distribution LFI (USPS no 0017912) is published 8 times per annum.

The photo was taken within the framework of a cultural event in Frankfurt.

An acquaintance had built this incredible chair out of wooden roof beams. It was standing backstage and I photographed every artist there sitting on it. Among them was John Cage who was in Frankfurt to stage his Europeras 1 & 2 opera.

However, a fire at the Frankfurt Opera House had made the opening there impossible. Consequently, he was in a bad mood and not particularly keen on my portrait idea. After two or three shots he said, “I don’t like it, I wanna go home.”

So I helped him down and off he went. After this picture, which is one of my absolute favourites, I’m convinced that photographer and protagonist don’t have to particularly like or understand each other, to still produce a great picture.

Anatol Kotte, born in Westphalia in 1963, began by working as an assistant for various commercial photographers in 1981. His passion for portraits is seen throughout all his work even today. His pictures are published nationally and internationally.

L F I 4 / 2 0 1 9 w i ll a p p e a r o n 1 7 M ay 2 0 1 9

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Subscription price per annum (including shipping) worldwide: 69 € LFI is also available as an app at the Apple iTunes store and at Google Play LFI Subscription Service P. O. Box 13 31, D-53335 Meckenheim Phone: +49 / 22 25 / 70 85-3 70 Fax: +49 / 22 25 / 70 85-3 99 E-Mail: lfi@aboteam.de All articles and illustrations contained in the magazine are subject to the laws of copyright. Any form of utilization beyond the narrow limits imposed by the laws of copyright and without the expressed permission of the publisher is forbidden and will be prosecuted. This applies particularly to reproduction, translation, microfilming or the storage and processing in electronic systems. Enquiries or material for publication are welcome. We accept no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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8th June 2019 W E T Z L A R

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