LFI Magazine 6/2020 E

Fulvio Bugani

4 198801 308909

Christopher de Béthune

Michael Friedel

Franck Bohbot

Nikita Teryoshin

6. 2 0 2 0 AU G U ST | S E P T E M B E R

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76 | L E I C A M 1 0 - R

Over 30 000 photographers present more that 700 000 pictures in the LFI Gallery. This issue includes magical light in the forest and Sebastião Salgado

Leica are expanding the M family with the M10-R, distinguished by a high-resolution, 40.89 MP sensor. The camera is based on the M10-P and features the same ultra-quiet shutter

P H OTO

8 2 | S L 2 M U LT I S H O T Leica have released the first major firmware update for the mirrorless SL2. Its most notable feature is the new multishot mode, facilitated by the camera’s suspended sensor

104 | BOOKS

Franck Bohbot: from the Forever Young (2018) series

106 | EXHIBITIONS

8 6 | L E I C A W E LT On a 6000-kilometre trip through Argentina, Swiss designer Alfredo Häberli used his Leica X2 Paul Smith to document classic cars from the perspective of a true connoisseur

Nikita Teryoshin 6 | B A C K YA R D D I A R I E S

A different type of S photography: the Berlin photographer uncovers the hidden world of urban street cats

Christopher de Béthune 2 6 | S A L A D D AY S

Its exterior is almost identical to that of the M10: the new Leica M10-R

New publications from Frank Herfort, Samuel Fosso und Stéphane Lavoué. Plus: The Journey. New Positions in African Photography

Two people confined to a small apartment for 65 days – de Béthune captures a romantic and poetic side to the lockdown

Fulvio Bugani 3 6 | G UA J I R O

Bugani, a city person who also has strong memories of his grandparents’ country lifestyle, discovered his own personal paradise in rural Cuba

Franck Bohbot 5 2 | F O R E V E R YO U N G

A world painted in pastels: summer days in a futuristic-looking water park spark memories of adolescence

Out of the Shadows, MOPA San Diego; 40 Years Hasselblad Award, Gothenburg; Portrait(s) #8, Vichy; William Wegman, The Hague; Sarah Moon, Paris 108 | LEICA GALLERIES The program of Leica Galleries around the world, including the Leica Women Foto Project Exhibition in Boston and Chris Steele-Perkins in London 1 1 0 | I N T E RV I E W Stéphanie Retière-Secret and Auguste Coudray speak about 17th edition of the La Gacilly Photo Festival in Brittany 114 | MY PICTURE Financially-speaking, it was not a great year for Nathanaël Fournier; even so, he was able to pursue his passion for street photography 114 | IMPRINT

Michael Friedel 64 | LEICA CLASSIC

A cover photo for Spiegel when he was just 21 – Friedel was in high demand as a photographer during the early years of the German Federal Republic

COVER: Nikita Teryoshin, street cat from his Backyard Diaries series

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LFI EDITORIAL

L F I I N S TAG RA M E XC LU S I V E O N L I N E C O N T E N T

A post by @leicaotaku: many of our Instagram followers share their fan art

Instagram has come to play an increasingly important role in the world of professional photography – enabling artists to connect with a much wider audience than they could reach through print publications alone. LFI is also represented on the platform: under the username @leica_fotografie_international, we publish additional material that complements the current issue of the magazine, post updates on the latest blog entries, and keep our followers up-to-date with photography-related news from around the world.

One of our most popular features is our Weekend Takeover, which gives Leica photographers the chance to showcase their work on our page. We also post user-generated content from the LFI Gallery, such as the Leica Mastershots or the Picture of the Week.

Join our ever-growing online community – tag us in your posts, share your thoughts with our editorial team, and discover exciting new content on an almost daily basis.

CONTRIBUTORS

The photographer started his series on street cats in a backyard in St. Petersburg, in the hope of distracting himself from his project about an arms trade fair (for which he subsequently received the World Press Photo Award). Fascinated by the diversity of his unlikely new theme, he continued the series in Bangkok and Atlantic City. While a pet hair allergy prevents him from adopting any of his four-legged protagonists, he does plan to keep on photographing them – from a safe distance – in Istanbul and in Tel Aviv.

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F U LV I O B U G A N I In this project, Bugani documents the enormous adjustments required when moving from the city to a rural area – and illustrates that quite similar challenges apply the other way around: “When we visited the city of Santa Clara near the ranch, the usually tough cowboys with their hard lives suddenly seemed completely lost, which really amazed me.

They just weren’t accustomed to the city, and we swapped roles: I became the expert! It was a meeting of two different worlds.”

MICHAEL FRIEDEL

As part of his six-month trip through Brazil in 1958, Michael Friedel was able to document the country’s new capital, Brasília, two years before its inauguration. The 24 year-old not only met the architect Oscar Niemeyer, but also had a very informal encounter with then President Juscelino Kubitschek. One of the president’s bodyguards snapped a picture of Friedel during a drive along a rough, dusty track. In this issue, we take a look at the early days of the photographer’s career.

Photos: © Andy Liong; © Nikita Teryoshin; © Fulvio Bugani; © private

N I K I TA T E RYO S H I N

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Nikita Teryoshin

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Street cats live in a kind of parallel world, of which most people are unaware. The Berlin photographer Nikita Teryoshin sought out felines in a number of large cities. Fascinated by their strength and individual characters, he produced unsentimental portraits of cats and their living environments.

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Thanks to the mild climate, many street cats in Bangkok lead a carefree existence.

In Thailand they are appreciated and fed by the local people

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Fascinated by the individuality and the characters of free-roaming cats, Nikita Teryoshin developed the idea for his Backyard Diaries portrait series, which will also soon appear as fanzines

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In empty cellars and makeshift shelters, street cats eke out an existence defined by territorial fights and the search for food. Some look for human proximity, other are more distrustful and shy

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To ensure that the shadows fall nicely, the photographer takes the pictures at the height of the cats’ eyes. He was never afraid they might attack him

N I K I TA T E R YO S H I N Born in St. Petersburg in 1986, Teryoshin grew up in Dortmund, where he completed a Bachelor degree at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts. In addition to his various personal projects, he is in demand as a press and magazine photographer, regularly published in Spiegel, Zeit and Vice. Teryoshin has received a number of prestigious photo awards – most recently the World Press Photo Award 2020.

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Berlin photographer Nikita Teryoshin travelled to the cities of St. Petersburg, Bangkok and Atlantic City, in search of street cats for his Backyard Diaries project. He found them in the less hospitable corners of town.

LFI: Your work normally deals with socio-political issues. Why do you now turn to cats?

Nikita Teryoshin: I’m interested in politics and socio-economic correlations; but also curious about how these correlations are reflected in relationships between people and animals.

I explored this mechanism of dominance and exploitation already in my graduation project, Hornless Heritage, that focussed on the German dairy cow. When I was in St. Petersburg last year covering an arms trade fair, I discovered a number of very variedlooking cats in the backyard of my accomodation. That was the first time I really noticed how visually fascinating they look, and how they have tremendous character. As I began to take their pictures, I realised how much fun I was having. It was a welcome change from the arms people.

What were living conditions like for cats in the cities where you photographed them?

It was different in each city. There have been cats in St. Petersburg forever. Legend says it was cats who saved the city from a plague of rats: during the World War II blockade, two train wagons full of cats were brought into the city and they vanquished the rats.

So here they’re in a good situation: they live in abandoned places and are partly fed by people. In Bangkok cats have an even better life, as Thai people are friendly towards felines. It’s only hotels or banks that don’t want any cats out front. However, the distinction between domestic and free-roaming cats is not clearly defined, because many locals have a little cat house outside their front door.

How did you go about discovering the cats’ whereabouts?

I asked friends and acquaintances and looked on Instagram, so as to locate cat hotspots like Chinatown in Bangkok. Sometimes I was lucky, but if you don’t know where the animals live it’s a bit like collecting mushrooms: you can spend a whole day in the forest and not find even one.

Some cats really look battered.

Did you ever have the feeling you had to help them?

I always had some cat food with me, which I gave them of course. However, I don’t see it as my mission to save all the cats in the world. I prefer just to draw the attention to them and their situation. I found it delightful to capture the cats from low down. I’m a big fan of Bruce Gilden’s Faces series, and I wanted to show the cats in that kind of way, as a homage. Like Gilden’s protagonists, streets cats are often overlooked, yet they are marked by the lives they lead and, compared to pedigree cats, have faces that reveal strong individual character.

Domestic and pedigree cats are a popular photo motif, and the internet is full of decorative cat pictures…

That was also one of my motivations.

If I was going to photograph cats, then certainly not with kitschy soft box, but with a harsh flash.

How did you find working on this project with the Leica S007?

At the beginning there were times when I swore at the camera, because it’s comparatively slow, and with cats it’s easy to miss the right moment.

Then it became clear to me that this work was less about a situational approach and more about taking firstrate portraits, and in that respect the camera was more than satisfying.

Furthermore, the camera greatly enhanced all the detail of the cats’ living environments. Another appealing aspect for me was to photograph something that isn’t typical for the Leica S, like glossy lifestyle and fashion photos for commercial ads.

You just won the World Press Photo Award for your project, Nothing Personal. What do such awards mean to you and for your work?

Even though I submit my work to many competitions, I do view the whole thing rather critically. Participating in competitions has become part of a professional photographer’s daily life.

The work gets seen and, in the best-case scenario, you win a prize. However, most of the time you don’t win. I can only recommend not letting it get to you. A competition should never be the reason to do something. Of course, I’m happy for the increased attention and the possibility to get more exposure for my work.

Please tell us about your motivation as a photographer.

When I was twenty years old and I applied to art school, my motivation was still to change the world through my photography. Today I’d no longer go so far as to say that, though it’s not out of the question either… On the one hand, I’m interested in showing marginalised people who otherwise don’t get seen, and on the other, to photograph things that weren’t planned as such, and to break through stagings of power. A friend once described my approach as thievish pleasure, which I find quite accurate.

Do you have further plans for the Backyard Diaries series?

My plan is to produce and distribute a small run of Backyard Diaries fanzines of the pictures taken in each of the cities. After that I want to continue with the series in Istanbul and Tel Aviv.

INTERVIEW: DENISE KLINK

N IKITATE RYOS H IN .COM LF I-ON LIN E .DE /B LOG: PORTFOLIO WITH CATS FROM ATLANTIC CITY EQUIPMENT: Leica S007 with Summarit-S 70 f/2.5 Asph

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Christopher de BĂŠthune S A L A D D AY S

The Belgian photographer de BĂŠthune reveals that it is possible to find a romantic side to any situation, even in an emergency lockdown.

Spending 65 days with his life-partner confined to a few square metres of space, he discovered an unknown poetry to everyday life.

When time is no longer significant: at first no one knew how long the lockdown would last. A week, a month or even longer?

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Confined to their homes, people suddenly developed creative ways to catch a few rays of sunshine. When he was not sleeping, de BĂŠthune moved up onto the roof of his apartment, where he set up a space for reading, working and living in the open air. This was where a bird flew up to him, a bird he has sheltered for some time

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A time away from everything, Yet so close to everything // We lost a cat, We shelter a bird // Like a void, spinning too fast // We cried, we yelled, and yet we smiled // We neither lose or win, at this game of waiting. (poem by the photographer)

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A breather: the view out of the window and towards the neighbours, who came out on their balconies and were de Béthune’s only contact to the outside world for a long time

CHRISTOPHER DE BÉTHUNE The self-taught photographer grew up in Brussels. After attending a school for illustration, he began photographing with a Leica M6 and self-publishing his work. His most recent book, Invisible Waves (dienacht Publishing) appeared in July 2020. His exhibition, Orion, remains on display at the newly opened gallery L’Enfant Sauvage in Brussels until September 12, 2020.

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A sunny day in March. Light shines through the open window of an apartment in Schaerbeek, a neighbourhood in the Belgian metropolitan region.

Jazz plays over a loudspeaker and a young couple playfully go about their work. While he browses through old negatives, she creates a collage. A cat purrs in one corner, wondering why it has not been alone in the apartment for the last few days. Brussels is in a nation-wide lockdown and people must not leave their homes unless with a valid reason. For freelance photographer, Christopher de Béthune, this marks the beginning of Salad Days – as he later titled his series. It is inspired by a Shakespearean idiom meaning a youthful time; accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, and indiscretion one associates with youth.

Everything felt fresh: from day one, the self-taught photographer grabbed his beloved Leica M6 to document this state of limbo. “The series depicts the strange feeling of being cast away in our own home, being confined in the vicinity of our sunny apartment. We kept our hands and minds occupied, and against all odds, despite the terrible news we read, heard or saw, despite all the tragic sadness out there, it was quite a simple, good life for us. We were like birds in a nest.” Suddenly he was able to mindfully look, to rediscover the atmospheric lighting in his apartment, to see what his stressed everyday life had rendered invisible. “In fact, I had all the time in the world to observe my personal surroundings,” he enthuses, “and it was fantastic.”

Once the apartment became too small, the photographer couple found a way to get up onto the roof, which became an important place. It offered them neutral ground outside their home and a welcome outdoor setting for the exceptionally friendly March weather in Brussels. “It was close to 25 degrees, and without the access to the roof

it would have been very hard to manage. I took a lot of photos from that roof; we got a glimpse into the lives of our neighbours, and into the whole surroundings.”

The son of a French mother and Swiss father, de Béthune grew up in Brussels – a city that is always present in his work. He became interested in photography at an early age, particularly because his grandfather was a professional photographer for the US Navy, who worked with Leica M3 cameras his whole life: “I was fascinated by his cameras and he was the first to show me pictures that left a strong visual imprint in my mind as a teenager.” As a child, de Béthune spent hours browsing through magazines, books and photo albums filled with pictures of soldiers, war machinery and boats.

The first photographs he took were of his immediate milieu, which at the time, was the alternative music scene.

His fascination with cameras and analogue photography endured. When he was 21, he spent his first income on a Leica M6, which he still uses today.

“I work with my faithful Leica M6 and a 35mm Summicron, as well as different types of film, both new and expired.

It’s a pretty simple set-up, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. In my mind it’s the perfect combination, and it goes with me wherever I go.”

De Béthune is not only interested in cameras and analogue photography; he is also involved in creating photozines and books. So far, he has produced around ten independent publications, either on his own or working with the printers, designers and photographers in his circle. Issues have been coming out since 2014, either self-published or courtesy of indie publishers such as dienacht Publishing or Origini Edizioni.

He is represented regularly at independent book fairs, and works closely with the founder of Tipi Bookshop in Brussels, who specialises in photo books produced by small, independent publishers, and who has been supporting de Béthune’s work since he brought out his first, self-published magazine.

While his previous books, Outland

(dienacht Publishing, 2016) and Orion (Origini Edizioni, 2019), are very graphic, virtually schematic, with large grain and somewhat gloomy, his lockdown series, Salad Days, reveals a positive brightness, and even tenderness.

“This series is indeed quite different to what I do ‘normally’,” the photographer points out. “I’m more of a ‘shoot first think later’ type. I take loads of pictures in the streets at night; but I don’t use the term street photography, even if I love it, because there’s no research done on something perfectly framed, or with the perfect light, or a funny situation. I prefer to describe it as an investigation of night, an archival research. And when I’m on the road I follow the same pattern: I work exactly the same way in remote mountains as I do in the streets. For this work it was the total opposite: I wanted to take my time, to see and feel all those private moments, those rays of light, the movements of the plants and all the small details.”

It was a delightful time, yet not without dark clouds: during the six-week lockdown, one of the beloved cats died, and by the end of the restrictions the relationship was on thin ice. Does de Béthune look back on the 65 days with nostalgia? Does he miss the leisure to dig out old negatives, sink into photographs and listen to jazz? “I quite miss the light-headed feeling about it, yes; not being stressed by work, the time it gave me to dive into years of negatives and photography, to listen to music on the radio. It was an easy time, yes; but reality struck and those days are now behind us – well, maybe to be seen again if there is a second wave.” DENISE KLINK

C H RISTOPH E RDE B E TH U N E .COM LF I-ON LIN E .DE /B LOG: PORTFOLIO WITH FURTHER PICTURES EQUIPMENT: Leica M6 with Summicron-M 35 f/2 Asph

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Fulvio Bugani

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They still exist – places where time seems to have stood still: where people live in harmony with nature and animals, free from the pressures of life in modern-day society.

With his Guajiro project, Italian photographer Fulvio Bugani wanted to revive childhood memories, and in the process, found a second home in rural Cuba.

Inspired by his grandparents’ lifestyle, Bugani looked for adventure in rural, everyday life. After years he discovered a ranch where he not only took photographs, but also ate, slept and worked – in short, lived. This close connection allowed him to capture the daily life of the Guajiros, up close and personal

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Backbreaking work in an idyllic, rural setting: inspired by his photographic mentors, Alex Webb and David Alan Harvey, as well as stories by Walker Evans and William Allard, Bugani developed a photographic narrative capturing the traditional lifestyle of Cuban farmers

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“Whenever I visit Caserío La Nueva, I immediately feel at home. I feel closely connected like a member of the family,” the photographer says with enthusiasm, when speaking of the ranch.

“Documenting their daily lives is not just another project – it has become my life.”

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Clear, strong colours define Fulvio Bugani’s imagery. After dedicating his work to important, socio-political issues, Guajiro is his most personal series to date

F U LV I O B U G A N I Born in Bologna in 1974, Bugani was 21 when he started working as a photographer for different studios. He opened his own studio, Foto Image, in 1999. His frequently socio-political projects are produced in collaboration with institutions such as Doctors without Borders or Amnesty International, and published in the likes of The Guardian and Marie Claire. His work earned him the World Press Photo Award in 2015.

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The call of yesteryear caught up with Fulvio Bugani. Seeking to revive childhood memories, the Italian photographer travelled to Cuba, where rural lifestyles remain in several areas. In the nation of eleven million people, 380 000 are farmers who are responsible for 65 percent of cattle and agricultural produce. At Caserío La Nueva, a ranch located far from the big city, between the towns of Santa Clara and Cienfuegos, the photographer found a new home among the farmers, called Guajiros in Cuban Spanish. Equipped with his Leica cameras, he documented a place where time has a completely different pace.

At what point in your life did you start taking photographs?

As a child I enjoyed looking at the family photo albums. In those images I found not only people I knew, but also the atmosphere of the time and this fascinated me. Looking at the images I realized photography was more than just a way to remember. It is an art; a form of communication with tremendous power and great emotional charge. This prompted me to deepen my knowledge and once I finished high school, to find a job in the field.

What fascinates you about Cuba?

I visited Cuba for the first time in 2003 and immediately felt a vibrant energy around me, which inspired me to a deep experience of the place. I made Cuba my second home, taking the opportunity to mix with locals, let myself be carried away by the pulse of everyday life and experience Cuban multi-ethnic cultural diversity. I began shooting images for my long-term project on Cuba in 2009, after my second visit. I’m in love with the place, largely due to the spirit of the people, but also the atmosphere and the light. In my experience, Cubans are the only people more concerned with the needs of others than their own. Something our Western society has forgotten.

What incited you to portray the everyday life of the Guajiros?

I grew up close to my grandparents who lived in the mountains. They were peasants and I was fascinated by their lifestyle. I felt a distance between my urban lifestyle and theirs, which had a completely different pace. As a child I was intrigued with how they prepared food. In the city we bought our food at the supermarket, while at my grandparents we ate the animals they bred.

Animals I used to play with: roosters, chickens, pigs, and so on. Now, as a grown man, I still feel a strong attraction to that lifestyle, so different from mine. It might be hard, but it is more meaningful and respectful of life.

How did you come across the ranch Caserío La Nueva? Did it take long to find a place like that?

It took me several years and many trips to the island to find this place I love. I found it by chance, while travelling from Havana to Santa Clara on a kind of mini-bus. I saw houses in a field and asked the driver to stop, there in the middle of nowhere. Everyone was astonished, but I felt a deep knowing inside that this was The Place.

What are the biggest differences between the lifestyles of the Guajiros and of people living in city?

In Cuba, life in the countryside is still truer, more connected to nature. The people living there are more direct.

They know they are simple, humble, dignified people and are not ashamed of it. They are good people. In the city there is more individualism, closed in, and fear of others.

How would you describe the atmosphere on the ranch?

During my frequent visits, I’ve taken many pictures of other families and peasants; but I found the atmosphere in this place particularly ‘real’ and at the same time, ‘surreal’. On the ranch the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and for this reason it’s very interesting to experience and document. I could feel a romantic atmosphere full of sensuality and passion.

Photographically, what are the biggest differences between this and your other projects?

My approach is not that different between projects, I always like to mingle with people. Regarding the story, however, my approach to this project is far less journalistic. It’s more personal and intimate. I’m doing it for myself, directing my attention to what I like and care about. I feel part of the family and their life. I work with them, sleep with them in their houses and share meals. This helps me not only understand better what I’m describing with my work, but also to be considered by my subjects as part of the whole situation, so they don’t change their behaviour because of me. Participating in their daily chores enables me to better appreciate how tough their life is; which is an aspect that I want to show in my pictures.

What were the biggest photographic challenges in this project?

The biggest challenge is to recharge the batteries of my camera and my computer. There is a lack of electricity at Caserío La Nueva. The other challenge is to live on the ranch, because there are no comforts at all and life is hard. Photographically speaking, it is the ability to chase the right light.

Sometimes there is a perfect situation, but no good light. This is one of the reasons I keep going back to Cuba: because I’m waiting for the right moment to shoot the picture I had in mind with the right atmosphere.

How would you describe living there in just three words?

Freedom. Beauty. Roots.

INTERVIEW: DANILO RÖSSGER

F U LVIOBU GAN I.COM LF I-ON LIN E .DE /B LOG: SLIDESHOW WITH FURTHER IMAGES EQUIPMENT: Leica Q2, Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph, Leica M10 with Summilux-M 28 f/1.4 Asph

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Franck Bohbot F O R E V E R YO U N G

A summer painted in pastels: pictures taken in a French water park by the photographer Franck Bohbot move between dream and reality, like the neverfading memories of adolescence

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Summer 2018 in Les Landes, France: Franck Bohbot was actually there to relax, but then he got the feeling that he had to capture the scenery – the atmosphere, the light, the people, the water slides. His photographs reflect memories of his adolescence

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Adolescence is like an endless dream that is never forgotten. The colours, the music, smells, tastes that surrounded us are present in our senses decades later, as though they have never gone away, sheltered in our memories. We are able to draw on them at any point in time: the holidays in Spain, Southern France or Italy, the swimming pool on the outskirts of Paris, the carefree summer days between sunrise and sunset. Ice-creams, water, French fries, sparkling droplets on the skin. For his series, the French photographer Franck Bohbot recaptures these youthful moments and sensations, the ‘best days’ of the year; where you could practically have cried when they were over because you were having so much fun.

Forever Young is a homage to being young, to the summertime; its unique light and special atmosphere.

“I took these pictures in 2018,” Bohbot explains, “when I was on holiday in Les Landes in south-western France.

I was there to relax and enjoy myself, but at the same time I did feel that I should photograph the situation and the scenes that were in front of me.”

Blue skies, white clouds, fine sand; youngsters in swimming costumes skimming down the water slides: Bohbot found himself at just the right moment in a world where everyone is vital and active, as though becoming free from space and time, to find themselves in a place of fun and games.

“Those moments reminded me of the fact that we are all young at heart, and that all we actually want to do in this world is play. My intention was to produce something original and fresh, something that moves between dream and reality,” Bohbot acknowledges.

His images are like paintings from a different era, somewhat reminiscent of pastels, with touches of beige, pink and pale blue colouring. One can not help but think of the fifties, of languid prose beneath the southern sun of France. “I only photographed

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what was in front of me: a lot of fun,” Bohbot says, describing his work. At the same time, it is very different from everything he has done beforehand: “I tried to develop a new aesthetic for this series, where I focussed more on telling a story visually, introducing more people and more life into my photography.” With the water park he captured a place where all these things come together – encounters, meetings, social interaction. Among it all is the feeling that everyone in the pictures knows each other from somewhere or other, as though we are seeing one big family on a day out.

The pictures were taken with a Leica SL and Vario-Elmarit-SL 24–90 f/2.8–4 Asph lens, a perfect combination in the photographer’s opinion.

“I love the neutral Leica look of the DNG data,” he says. “I can change the colours according to my wishes, while the lighting and overall feeling should remain natural.” In addition to the people and the colour-scheme he chose, it is the enormous slide structures that stand out in the pictures; creating the impression of an alien spaceship that has landed on earth. Bohbot says that he is fascinated by geometry, and the connection between architecture and cinema, which is why he always tries to include lines and special shapes in his work. One day, he could see himself working on a project about space and astronomy.

“I remain a child at heart, and I’ll definitely never become a real adult,” the photographer says, speaking about himself. “I love everything that has to do with slides, and any kind of beach activity.” This is not the only reason the title, Forever Young, is so appropriate, but also because it suits Bohbot’s life philosophy: he never considers that a photo series has come to an end; it remains forever young – you can build on and develop it. Consequently, he hopes to be able to produce a new segment for the series in a different country, as a continuation of his memories. In a sense it is like with a photo album: all the moments in life find their right place, somewhen, somehow and somewhere. KATJA HÜBNER

FRANCK BOHBOT Born in Longjumeau, Southern France in 1980, the photographer moved to New York City in 2013. Since 2008, he has produced numerous photo series that deal with urban architecture. Theatres, libraries, swimming pools are all parts of his universe. The photographer’s visual style is marked by cinematic influences and a keen eye for the theatrical.

Many of Bohbot’s series and projects move in the space between reality and fantasy.

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Michael Friedel is undoubtedly one of the most widely travelled magazine and documentary photographers of his time. In this selection, we focus on his reportages and impressions of daily life in the young German Federal Republic, captured from the 1950s to 1970s.

LEICA CLASSIC

Michael Friedel

Elvis Presley supports a polio vaccination campaign at the rehearsals for the first Ed Sullivan Show, New York 1956. Right: the cover of Der Spiegel, issue 50/1956

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Life in Germany during the economic miracle: hairdressing master examination at the Munich trade fair halls, 1955, and a bridal show in Stuttgart, 1966 (top); Sunday outing of a miner’s family, Dusseldorf 1966 (below); Harry Lindmeyer and Iris Berben, Munich 1975 (right)

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Novelist and playwright Peter Handke, reporting for Stern at the legendary Beatles concert in Essen, June 25, 1966

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Reverse shot: writer and actor Franz Xaver Kroetz, Munich-Pasing 1968 (left); mass choreography at the Communist Party Congress, Bucharest 1964, and a fire brigade band performing at a drift hunt, SchleswigHolstein 1962 (top); a quiet Sunday at the Moscow Metropolitan Museum, 1964 (below)

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Rainer Werner Fassbinder and GĂźnther Kaufmann, Munich 1966; Romy Schneider with her mother, Magda, taking a break on the movie set of Sissi, Venice 1955 (top); Charles Wilp, Afri Cola commercial, London 1968 (below); Photokina founder L. Fritz Gruber and Art Director Willy Fleckhaus, Cologne 1956 (right)

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ly pleased. While Friedel had already drawn some attention in the world of German photography (his first lead story was published in Stern as early as 1954, and he was a two time winner of the Photokina youth competition), his work now went on to be featured in every major magazine.

According to a quote in the 1955 edition of Das Deutsche Lichtbild, Friedel took up photography out of “stubbornness and defiance”. While his family did not, initially, approve of his aspirations, he remained undeterred – engaging in intense exchanges about photography with his friend, Max Scheler, when he was still at school. His first camera, a Rolleicord, was soon followed by his first Leica.

After a year-long internship at a press photo lab in Munich and a commercial apprenticeship at Agfa, Friedel embarked on his career as a photojournalist – even winning over his father with his rapid success. He went on to spend most of the 1960s working for Stern, and was featured as a Master of the Leica in a 1967 issue of Leica Fotografie. Eventually he left Stern to travel the world as a freelance photographer, inspiring an ever-growing readership with his reportages.

Despite his acclaim as a travel photographer, Friedel’s early documentations of the Federal Republic have only been rediscovered in recent years. And yet, this part of his oeuvre is well worth exploring: in addition to portraying some of the era’s most famous personalities, his precisely composed, often subtly humorous images offer profound insight into life during Germany’s economic miracle – with all its upheavals, conflicts and above all longings. He captured his subjects at close range, in a manner that was empathetic without compromising his photo-journalistic objectivity. Instead of the stance of a roving reporter, he took the approach of a curious and well-prepared observer. The photographer recently celebrated his 85th birthday. We offer our congratulations, and look forward to rediscovering the many facets of his remarkable life’s work. ULRICH RÜTER

MICHAEL FRIEDEL Born June 5, 1935 in Berlin, Friedel left school to pursue photography. Internship at the Norbert Amann press photo lab in Munich, followed by an apprenticeship at Agfa. Winner of the Photokina youth photography competition ‘Jugend photographiert’.

Self-funded travels through Europe, USA, South America and Africa. Numerous publications, including in Stern, Der Spiegel and Twen. Staff photographer at Quick (1956 to 1961) and, subsequently, Stern. 1968: return to Munich, career as a freelance travel photographer.

Friedel has released more than 20 books in multiple languages via his own publishing company, MM-Photodrucke (co-founded with his wife in 1978). He lives in Dietramszell, near Munich.

MIC H AE L-F RIE DE L.COM EXH IB ITION : Michael Friedel: West Ger-

man Moments 1955–1976; Leica Gallery Nuremberg; July 18 to September 26, 2020; www.leica-store-nuernberg.de B OOKS : (selection) MICHAEL FRIEDEL. FOTOGRAFIEN 1950–1990 (MM Photo-

drucke, 2018; new edition 2020); MALDIVES – THE VERY BEST OF MICHAEL FRIEDEL

(MM Photodrucke, 2011)

Photos: © Michael Friedel

Fans of the Maldives and the Seychelles are bound to be familiar with Michael Friedel’s enthralling travel books. For the past decades, he has documented that part of the world in numerous publications. In the early days of his career, however, Friedel worked in classic black and white: during the 1950s he quickly rose to become one of the most sought-after photojournalists of his generation. His monochrome oeuvre can now be rediscovered in Nuremberg’s Leica Gallery, which currently presents some of his most remarkable images under the heading of West German Moments 1955–1976. Included in the selection is the iconic portrait of Elvis Presley, captured when the photographer was just 21 years old. The image was published on the cover of Der Spiegel in December 1956 – printed in reverse and adorned with the headline, From Dixieland to Kinseyland. Friedel’s commission of 500 Deutschmarks was a small fortune at the time, and provided a much-needed boost to his travel fund. After all, his six-month tour of the US was entirely self-financed.

“I didn’t have any assignments, which meant I had plenty of time to hang around the Magnum offices in New York,” he remembers. “I got on especially well with Cornell Capa. One day the office administrator, Inge Bondi, got a call from Eberhard Wachsmuth at Der Spiegel: he urgently needed a portrait of Elvis Presley. I immediately set off for the TV studios a few blocks away, where the rehearsals for the legendary Ed Sullivan Show were taking place. I walked down Broadway, which was already closed off for Elvis. At the studios, I was given free rein to photograph the rehearsals. Elvis was pretending to receive a polio shot as part of a public health campaign to promote vaccinations.” The resulting images were developed and enlarged overnight, and sent to the Spiegel offices in Hamburg. The recipients were extreme-

F/ S TOP – L E I C A M 1 0 - R – M U LT I S H O T U P D AT E F O R T H E S L 2 –

R F O R R E S O LU T I O N : TH E NEW L E I C A M 1 0 - R W I T H AN EXTREME HIGH SENS O R R E S O LU T I O N O F OV E R 40 MEGAPIXELS

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INNER STRENGTH LEICA M10-R

There is just one fundamental difference between the Leica M10-R and the M10 - yet its impact cannot be overstated: with a resolution of over 40 megapixels, the new model’s sensor delivers entirely new levels of image quality.

When the M10 Monochrom was released a few months ago, its brand-new sensor with exceedingly high, almost 41-MP resolution elevated the already unique camera to yet another level of exclusivity. At that time, Leica explained that the prospect of a colour-recording counterpart was rather unlikely. Their reasoning was that the processor used in the M10 models would be pushed to the limits of its capacity by the three-times larger colour files – potentially leading to a slightly slower speed of operation that not every M photographer might be willing to accept. Since then, Leica have not only reconsidered, but have also found a simple way to address the issue of resolution versus speed: the new Leica M10-R has been added to the product cata76 |

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logue alongside the M10 and the M10-P – allowing customers to choose between the faster M10 with its still excellent 24-megapixel sensor, or the high-resolution M10-R with a slightly more reticent operational speed, depending on their individual priorities.

IN PRACTICE. Leica are certainly making the choice as easy as possible: the M10-R and M10-P are identical aside from the sensor (and, of course, the red dot). This leaves only two questions to consider: how significant is the gain in image quality provided by the higher resolution? And: does the M10-R feel noticeably slower in practical application?

Internally, the new camera is based on the M10-P with its quieter shutter. Externally, its red dot makes

it indistinguishable from the standard M10 – unless you scrutinise the engraving on the flash shoe. Dimensions, weight, as well as features such as the control elements, are the same in all three cameras.

What sets the M10-R apart from its two sister models is its sensor – distinguished by an enormous resolution of 40.89 MP, or 7864 x 5200 pixels. The question as to whether this translates to significantly increased image quality can only be answered with a resounding yes. A higher resolution is synonymous with a greater rendition of details. So it is always advantageous, even if it exceeds what you would need for a small-scale print. At the same time, the captured details remain visible even in lower-resolution prints.

Of course, the 24 megapixels of the M10/M10-P are more than sufficient to produce high-quality A4 prints – and, within this print size category, even the M10-R will be hard-pressed to render any additional details.

It is mostly when printing larger formats, or magnifying cropped sections of an image, that the M10-R really comes into its own. Yet even in those instances, only pixel peeping or a magnifying glass will reveal notable discrepancies between the M10-R and the still indisputably superb M10.

LESS NOISE. The 24 MP of the M10 are widely perceived as the ‘ideal resolution’. After all, previous experience has shown that higher resolutions with smaller pixels generally lead to increased →

The engraving on the flash shoe is the only external detail that distinguishes the M10-R from the M10, which served as the basis for the new model. Concealed inside, however, is a sensor with a resolution of over 40 megapixels, as well as the quiet shutter of the M10-P. The new M10-R is also available in an all-black finish

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This image by Welsh photographer Huw John contains a vast amount of minute detail, and could be printed in a much larger format than we are able to show here Š Huw John, Cardiff

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image noise and a reduced dynamic range. However, due to advances in the field of sensor technology, the M10-R not only sidesteps this issue, but manages to achieve the exact opposite: the camera produces less noise, with a reduction of around one f-stop at higher sensitivities. In addition, any existing noise is far less visible thanks to the higher resolution of the pictures. ISO settings of up to 6400 can be used without any drawbacks, and even the maximum setting of ISO 50 000 can be applied if the images are to be scaled down. The low base sensitivity of ISO 100 makes it feasible to shoot fast lenses at open aperture in fairly bright light.

W I TH I TS EXC E PTIONAL RENDIT I O N Q UA L I T Y, THE LEICA M10-R E M P H AS I S E S T H E I N D I V I D UA L TRAI TS O F EAC H LE N S – W H I C H IS EXACTLY AS IT SH O U LD B E .

Also, the dynamic range of around 14 stops is one value higher than that of the M10 – enabling you to draw more details out of the shadow and highlight areas.

Looking purely at the image quality, there is no sound reason to favour the standard M10 over the new model: the M10-R really does excel in every aspect of its performance, and raises the bar to the next level of excellence. This, in turn, emphasises the quality of the lenses, as their strengths and weaknesses are highlighted more clearly. The exceptional sharpness of an Apo-Summicron-M 50 will be even more distinct, as will the soft rendition inherent in many vintage lenses.

The effect, however, is

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never unforgiving or exposing. Instead, the character of each lens is retained in its entirety – something many of us have not experienced since the days of analogue photography. The result is a profound sense of returning to the essentials.

SM O OT H O PE RATI O N .

When it comes to reactivity, on the other hand, M10-R photographers will have to make some concessions.

The camera uses the same processor and buffer memory as the M10/M10-P, but due to the larger image files, the M10-R is slightly less speedy: instead of 22 DNG files, the buffer memory only stores 10 DNGs recorded at maximum burst speed. This alone, however, shows that

the differences are rather academic. In practice, there is little to no sign of the M10-R being slower or less ready to shoot than the M10, or of a preview image taking longer to load. It seems as though a somewhat rushed shooting situation is the only circumstance in which the ‘ordinary’ M10 models would outperform the M10-R. But then, this is not a scenario typically associated with M photography.

In short, the M10-R is more than capable of handling all classic tasks of a rangefinder camera.

Perhaps some owners of a previous M10 model might ask themselves whether they still have the right camera – but they can rest assured. While the M10-R

inevitably represents a leap in terms of image quality, there is no need to rush into replacing your existing camera. Similarly, some customers might wonder if the M10-R could make the M10 Monochrom obsolete. However, it is worth remembering that the absence of a colour filter array allows the monochrome model to deliver a superior detail rendition – and it also exceeds the M10-R by one f-stop with regards to noise, sensitivity and dynamic range.

In other words: the M10-R does not in any way invalidate the existing M10 models. Instead it represents a new, high-end alternative for those who covet image quality above all else.

This 100% crop of the image from the previous page, rendered at 300 dpi, perfectly illustrates the enormous resolution of the M10-R

HOLGER SPARR

the peninsula hong kong

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M U LT I S H OT F I R M WA R E U P D AT E S L 2

Leica have released the first major firmware update for theLeica SL2: the multishot mode opens up new possibilities, and highlights the enormous potential embedded in the camera’s hardware.

The firmware update for the SL2 enables the mirrorless full-frame camera to capture images with a resolution of up to 187 megapixels

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In November 2019, Leica introduced the successor to the popular SL (Typ 601) mirrorless system camera – the Leica SL2. Its most distinguishing features were the 47-megapixel suspended sensor, in-body image stabilisation, improved ergonomics, and a new control layout introduced with the Leica Q2 in 2019.

At that point, Leica had already proven that SL cameras can be retrospectively fine-tuned without the need to hand them over to Customer Service: back in 2017, the firmware update 3.0 transformed the Leica SL (Typ 601) into what my colleague, Michael Hußmann, described as an almost entirely new camera (see LFI 6/2017, page 92). Now the current Leica SL2’s integrated hardware reserves are brought to the fore with the camera’s first major update: firmware version 2.0.

From the very beginning, Leica accompanied the SL2’s release with the promise that an innovative new feature – the so-called multishot mode – would be added as part of the first substantial upgrade. The pandemic-induced lockdown delayed the release of the software, but at the end of June, the moment had finally arrived: the firmware update 2.0 for the SL2 was available to download.

In addition to the multishot function, the update also includes numerous smaller optimisations, implemented in response to feedback from photographers who have tested the camera for the first few months after its release.

But more on this later.

M U LT I SH OT M O DUS.

What does this feature actually entail? The answer lies in the movability of the camera’s suspended sensor. The multishot function allows the camera to record eight consecutive frames which are subsequently calculated into one single image by the Maestro III processor.

In between each exposure, the sensor is shifted by a half-pixel increment. The resulting images display a staggering amount of detail, and can achieve a resolution of up to 187 MP – four times that of a standard recording.

Sinar already pursued a similar concept a few years ago. However, in contrast to the Swiss manufacturer’s digital camera backs, Leica chose to integrate the multishot function directly into the camera for ultimate convenience – though its optimal performance depends on a number of prerequisites. First and foremost, you will need a sturdy tripod to avoid any type of camera shake, seeing as all image stabilisation (in-camera and in-lens) will be automatically disabled. Consequently, the multishot function is not suitable for handheld shooting.

The lighting conditions should be consistent, and your sensitivity setting should not exceed ISO 3200.

It is important to use lenses that have been calculated for the SL2’s full-frame format (as opposed to APS-C) and to forgo the flash. Lastly, multishot mode always works in conjunction with the electronic shutter.

And yet, these constraints are negligible in light of the superior results you are able to achieve. →

Photos: Oliver Vogler/Leica Akademie

In multishot mode, the SL2 produces two versions of the image: one with the standard resolution of 47 MP, and one with 187 MP. The differences in detail rendition are enormous

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The size of this standard image is 8368 × 5584 pixels

The size of this multishot image is 16 736 × 11 168 pixels

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A R EAS O F A PPL I CAT I O N. The multishot mode

The SL2’s multishot mode delivers outstanding results with regards to resolution, detail rendition, dynamic range and image noise in challenging light

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is a professional tool that is not suited to every situation in equal measure. It is especially geared towards still life, macro, architectural, landscape and product photography, as well as the photographic reproduction of artworks – in other words, scenarios that involve inanimate objects and/or require a particularly high resolution and exact rendition of details. Street, sports and portrait photography, on the other hand, are among the less likely contenders for this feature.

The multishot function is especially useful when recording images that will subsequently be printed.

The high resolution, rich rendition of details and increased dynamic range give rise to exceptionally high-quality, large-scale prints. Essentially, this feature takes the full-frame SL2 into areas of application that were previously reserved for medium and large format cameras. At the same time, the SL2 offers numerous advantages over these heftier models – from its compact dimensions and vast portfolio of outstanding lenses, all the way to its more affordable retail price.

F U RT H E R I M PROV EM E NTS. While the multi-

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shot mode is the most important feature of the new firmware, the update also provides several smaller improvements. The white highlighted header to indicate that the user is operating in video mode, has now been extended to the video sub-menus. This seemingly minor change creates a

clear distinction between still photo and video recording, thereby minimising the risk of adjusting your settings by accident.

Another upgrade is a more straightforward method of changing the AF field size.

This can now be done with a long tap on the touch screen, without moving the AF point. A problem regarding the directory name of the SD cards has now been addressed: the SD card will be named ‘Leica SL2’ once it has been formatted.

The update also provides several bug fixes.

For example, the camera occasionally failed to recognise some 6-bit coded M lenses mounted with the M-Adapter L. This has been fully rectified. The focus distance indicator in the top display, which in some cases showed inaccurate feet values, has been corrected.

Another issue was that the ‘Continuous – Very High Speed’ drive mode previously generated artefacts in DNG files recorded at certain settings – a problem that has now been entirely eliminated. Last but not least, the firmware update further improves the connectivity between the SL2 and the Leica Fotos and Image Shuttle apps, resulting in a faster and more stable connection between camera and smartphone or computer.

Overall, the new firmware version 2.0 represents a vital upgrade that we can unequivocally recommend to every SL2 photographer.

DAVID ROJKOWSKI

DID YOU KNOW? Whether colour filters, a second battery or a camera bag – at the LFI Shop you can find a large selection of original Leica accessories.

HOME ENLARGING LFI — 50 YEARS AGO

MUSING S ABOUT WOMEN, LOV E , A N D T H E J OY O F P R O D U C I N G YO U R OW N P R I N T S

Should questions of taste be matter for debate?

I think not, for they can neither be mathematically established nor refuted, and no amount of tearing one’s hair out will prove the opposite. The work of a finishing laboratory will always attain that degree of quality which most nearly accords with the taste of the majority of their customers. So far as concerns 3x4 in. prints, this presents little difficulty. Closer associations however see another matter. Pictures, like affection, tend to assume greater dimensions; matters of light and shade, and framing, are considered more critically. (…)

Even from normal negatives it is possible to get quite different enlargements, depending upon the grade of the paper and the developer used and the length of exposure. This again becomes a matter of taste (see above). And once having realized this, since I want my album to record my own taste, and not that of the laboratory assistant, I now make my own enlargements!

The result is like discovering, in a beautiful woman, a warm individuality. Love was there all the time, but only this brings complete harmony. (…) If you want enlargements which express your own conceptions of quality and taste – make them yourself. The extra pleasure that comes from home enlarging is something that cannot be described – only experienced.

O RD ER N OW:

LFI-ONLINE.COM/SHOP L F I 4/ 1 970: Leicaflex SL MOT – Who, What, When and Why?,

Close-ups, without Focusing Bellows, and more: available for €1.09 in the LFI App for Android and iOS

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ALFREDO HÄBERLI LEICA WORLD

At Leica, technology and design are intrinsically connected – so it is unsurprising that many designers have a penchant for Leica cameras. Among them is Alfredo Häberli, who used his Leica to document classic cars from a connoisseur’s point of view.

What catches the eye of an acclaimed Swiss designer travelling through Argentina, the country of his birth? The answer is: cars.

Not high-gloss showroom models or extravagant rarities, but well-loved jalopies whose best days are behind them – though some still recognise them as the design icons they are. Three years ago, Alfredo Häberli drove his family across Argentina, accompanied by his Leica X2. The portfolio he compiled during this 6000 kilometre journey is appealing in every way: from the initial concept to its stringent execution and joyful sense of discovery. Time and again, the designer stopped off to photograph yet another car that caught his attention.

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ravaged by time, others vivid and well-preserved.

Born in Argentina, Häberli moved to Switzerland with his parents at the age of 14.

He graduated from the Zurich School of Design, and quickly established himself as an internationally renowned product and industrial designer. In 2014 he was awarded the prestigious Swiss Grand Prix of Design.

His extensive client list ranges from Iittala, Camper and BMW to Luceplan and Vitra; and yet, despite working on such a wide variety of products, he always maintains a unique signature style. Whether he creates tumblers, furniture, luminaires or the interior of an entire hotel: Häberli’s designs seem both modern and timeless, defined by a specific blend of tradition and innovation. Every object he

conceptualises is rooted in a masterful interplay of material, colour and form.

His portfolio, titled Pintura Muerta, is yet another testament to Häberli’s appreciation of history and design – as is his choice of camera, which proved the perfect tool for this task. Here we present some excerpts from this sketchbook of images, and ask the designer about his work, his love of cars, and the role photography plays in his life.

LFI: How did the images featured here first come about?

Alfredo Häberli: I visit Argentina quite often – I was born there and still feel a deep connection to the country. The trip in 2015 was an 80th birthday present to my mother, suggested by my son. It was an important

journey that also commemorated my father and my uncle. Both were great car enthusiasts, and regularly took us to rallies when we were kids. Later, my parents had a restaurant near a race track, so cars have always played an important role in my life; but this was the first time I made them the subjects of still life photographs.

LFI: You also had a matchbox collection when you were a little boy…

Alfredo Häberli: Yes, when we moved to Switzerland, my mother told us to pack no more than a shoebox worth of personal belongings, because at that point, we were intending to come back. I was no longer playing with my matchbox cars, but it was my first collection, so I took it with me. →

Photo: Andreas Houmann/Georg Jensen (DK)

Born 1964 in Buenos Aires, Alfredo Häberli ranks among the world’s most renowned product and industrial designers. In 1991 he founded his Design Development Studio in Zurich

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Top: a Fiat 128; bottom left: a Peugeot 404, manufactured in Argentina until 1982. Bottom right: a Jeep IKA Renault, ca. 1971, made in Argentina (IKA = Industries Kaiser Argentina)

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Photos: Alfredo Häberli

Top: a Jeep Estanciera IKA Renault Tricolore, manufactured from 1957–1965, and an IKA Renault 4L (4 latas = four tins); below: a Chevrolet Chevy Coupé Series 2 from 1978

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Roadside find: an object becomes an icon when its distinctive character is recognised – even if its glory days are over, like with this Fiat 850 Sport CoupÊ from 1968

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“ T H E P I N T U RA M U E RTA S E R I E S IS A L M OST DEVOID OF P EOP L E, B E C AU S E T H E CONCEPT WAS TO P LAC E C A R S AT THE CENTRE OF A D O C U M E N TA RY ST U DY. ”

LFI: The images shown here seem very well thought out – was the concept for this series in place from the beginning?

Alfredo Häberli: When I travel, I tend to photograph in a documentary as well as conceptual style. I often explore structures and colours – which also form the basis for the series. Most of the cars I captured are still roadworthy, though they look rather dilapidated.

What fascinates me is the colour, the original paintwork that has been reconditioned or repaired time and again. This creates a very specific aesthetic. For me, this wasn’t just about taking pleasing pictures – I also wanted to document these colours. But it was only after I got home that I compiled a cohesive series.

LFI: Is there a nostalgic element to this project?

Older car designs seemed to be much more individual than they are today?

Alfredo Häberli: Yes, definitely. These cars are brimming with character. Their form, silhouette and pro-

portions are very distinctive. They represent iconic moments in time. I miss the emotion that went into these designs. The evolution of the automobile today is too fast-paced for my liking.

LFI: What would you suggest contemporary car manufacturers should do?

Alfredo Häberli: Follow their hearts. Everything these days is very market oriented; but I believe that people are looking for something different. I’m convinced that there would be a clientele for cars with more character.

LFI: How would you describe your style?

Alfredo Häberli: I’ve always thought of style as a signature that is instantly recognisable. More than anything, however, I see it as a way of thinking. I’m interested in beauty and aesthetics, as well as artists and architects whose work is free of repetition. I keep an eye on new developments regarding colours and structures, but not for the purpose of following a trend. Many of my designs have continued to be in production for decades. They are contemporary without being limited to fashion.

If that’s my style, then I’m content.

LFI: Does your tendency to blend innovation and tradition also shape your interest in Leica? →

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Alfredo Häberli: Yes, I’m fascinated by the purposeful nature of the cameras, which are designed to be working tools. I also admire Leica’s autonomy. Any company that manages to maintain its core identity throughout so many eras, including digitisation, and still continues to exert a sense of fascination, deserves a great deal of respect.

A journey of discovery through the car designs of the last century: with its gold paint and vinyl roof, this Ford Falcon Futura, built in 1973, found a place in Häberli’s series

LFI: You shot this series with your Leica X2.

Alfredo Häberli: It’s a Paul Smith Edition model.

I bought it because it looks like something I might have designed myself if approached with the same task. I think this colour combination really works on the camera.

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And when I see an object that moves me, I usually want to own it. I added an external viewfinder, so I can select my frame in the knowledge that it won’t be corrected later on. It’s difficult for my assistants if the final format is different from what was intended.

This way, the picture looks exactly as I saw it. That’s very important to me.

LFI: What role does photography play in your life?

Alfredo Häberli: I do, in fact, own some fine-art photographs. Perhaps more to the point, I have something of a photographic memory.

My shelves contain forty metres’ worth of sketchbooks and drafts, and I know each one of them by heart.

I could also tell you exactly which cars I photographed in Argentina. To me, photography is a discipline that promotes precise observation.

LFI: Many people take pictures to help them remember an experience, only to end up forgetting about both – is this different in your case?

Alfredo Häberli: Yes, that’s one reason why I don’t shoot that many pictures. The situation has to be just right.

Observation is the highest form of contemplation – and I really do observe. It’s like compiling one of my sketchbooks: once I’ve gathered my ideas, the book has already served its purpose – what mattered was the act of capturing the moment.

“MY PHOTOGRAPHS LAY NO CLAIM TO B E I N G A RT, T H E Y A R E M OR E OF A DOC U M EN TAT ION .

T H E S I T UAT I O N HAS TO BE JUST R IG HT: OB S ERVAT ION IS T HE HIG HEST FORM OF CONT EM P LAT ION . ”

LFI: All designers must find the balance between creativity and responding to the client’s needs. How do you navigate these two conflicting roles?

Alfredo Häberli: I fight for my way of seeing. I’ve established a professional reputation that is built on my specific opinions and perceptions – in contrast to an agency, where there is no distinctive signature. I provide the same type of service, but the client also gets ‘me’. Stipulations and restrictions certainly add to the challenge. But then, we are not striving to be artists who paint on a blank canvas. We create design solutions – and that’s where our hearts truly lie.

INTERVIEW: ULRICH RÜTER

“America’s Premier Leica Specialist”

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B E S T O F L F I . G A L L E RY

B U T T E R F LY I N THE MORNING “Macro photography in black and white is always a challenge, but the M10 Monochrom’s reduction of structure and contrasts performed way beyond my expectations!

The dewdrops glitter with a silvery-metallic effect, and I loved the mood in the morning light.”

Hardy-Bernd Wagner Leica M10 Monochrom with Macro-Adapter-M and Macro-Elmar-M 90 f/4

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L IG H T BOX

TRAINING “I took a walk with my son in the city, until we found a place where he was able to practice tricks on his scooter. The sun was high in the sky and it was a delight to play around with the shadows and the bright background. Lying down on the ground, I took photos until he was so exhausted that we decided to get a well-deserved refreshing drink.”

David Patris Leica M (Typ 240) with Summilux-M 75 f/1.4

S E B A S T I ÃO M AG N I F I E D “Several years ago, I visited Sebastião Salgado in his office and archive in Paris.

He has contact sheets of his negatives printed and then enlarges them. He didn’t really like this picture because he thought he looked like a monster through the magnifying glasses. For me it represents a Master in his field.”

Michael Agel Leica M6 with Summilux-M 35 f/1.4 Asph

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WAT E R WO R K S “Water is one of the most powerful and important of all the elements that are a part of our lives.

It symbolises strength and patience. With its physical properties – its movement, its ability to re-adapt and its ability to withstand and recover –, a drop of water goes a long way to meet our needs in this time of a new pandemic.”

Alex Chen Leica SL2 with Apo-Summicron-M 90 f/2 Asph

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ASSINIE 7

STRANGERS

“This photo was taken on set during the filming of a video clip in Ivory Coast.

The heat was extreme and the light conditions were no longer ideal, so we decided to stop filming. I saw some children playing in a salt water lake. I went over and spent about thirty minutes photographing the kids, who became the stars of the show.”

“For me, photography is both a passion and a means that I can make use of during my work as a set designer in a theater. This picture was taken at Liepāja Theater in Latvia, during a photo session for Paolo Genovese’s theatre piece Perfect Strangers – a stage version of the film with the same title.”

Sylvestre Dedise Leica Q2, Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph

Martins Vilkarsis Leica SL2 with Apo-Summicron-SL 50 f/2 Asph

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IN BETWEEN AND N OW H E R E “When I met these ambitious talents, it saddened me to know that, because of prejudices, they didn’t enjoy the same privileges as others.

That’s the reason why I wanted to produce a portrait that revealed their inner depth and beauty beyond their religious attributes.”

Payman Hazheer Leica Q2, Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph

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N AT U R A L SPOTLIGHT “When out taking an autumn morning walk, I saw these rays of sunlight piercing the mist, creating an effect like natural headlights. I love available light photography, so I decided to realise an idea I’d had in mind for a long time. Now and then, one should pause and enjoy the quiet of nature.”

Renato Just Leica M10 with Summicron-M 50 f/2

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P H OTO – B O O K S – E X H I B I T I O N S – F E S T I VA L S – AWA R D S –

Samuel Fosso: The Liberated American Woman of the 1970s from the series Tati, 1997

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S T É P H A N E L AVO U É

Photos: Georges Senga, Untitled, from the series Kadogos, 2012; © Stéphane Lavoué; © 2020 Frank Herfort; © 2020 Samuel Fosso, from the series Lifestyle 1975–78 and Tati, 1997

LES MOIS NOIRS

THE JOURNEY N E W P O S I T I O N S I N A F R I C A N P H OTO G RA P H Y

A multi-faceted homage to his new home. A few years ago, after living in Paris and around the world, the French Leica photographer (born 1976) moved to Brittany.

Portraits and landscapes, intensely atmospheric colours with painterly moments, come together in this longanticipated, elegant photo book (see Leica Camera Blog, February, 2020).

80 pages, 46 images, 19.7 × 27 cm, English/French, Éditions 77

Present, past, self-reflection, politics and history, reality and fantasy – yet always coming back to the theme of portraits. Reflecting a great diversity of photo-artistic practices, this publication represents an exciting cross-section of the works produced during the Photographers’ Masterclass, a mentoring project held between 2008 and 2018, in collaboration with the German Goethe Institute.

The book is not a final document, but rather a subjective assessment of the project, presenting 17 photographic approaches and formats, and accompanied by 13 editorial essays. The title, The Journey (ed. Simon Njami, Sean O’Toole), describes the process, as the masterclass was not held in one formal location, but rather in a mobile academy that spent the ten years of its existence travelling across the African continent, organising workshops and portfolio reviews in various cities: Maputo (Mozambique), Bamako (Mali), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo), Lagos (Nigeria), Johannesburg (South Africa), Khartoum (Sudan) and Nairobi (Kenya). The class was for any photographer interested in dealing with curators and teachers. The aim was to help build a stronger network between the participants, to accompany their artistic developments and, as a result, to promote their visibility and careers, and contribute towards the development of a photographic-artistic infrastructure in Africa. The outcome is both fascinating and encouraging.

342 pages, 145 images, 21.5 × 28 cm, English, Kerber

SA M U E L F O S S O AU TO P O RT RA I T

In 1975, Fosso opened his own photo studio in Bangui, Central African Republic.

He was just 13. In addition to his everyday business, his work was defined by staged, selfportraits: to avoid wasting expensive materials, he filled the ends of exposed films with them. Initially playing around with clothes and accessories, his role-playing later took on increasingly political dimen-

FR ANK HERFORT R U S S I A N FA I R Y TA L E S

None of these absurd situations and curious moments are staged; rather, they reflect authentic, daily life in Russia, as discovered over ten years by the German photographer (born 1979). While not really fairytales, Herfort managed to capture a fascinating parallel world, allowing the viewer the chance to make his or her own, fairytale-like associations.

160 pages, 88 images, 20 × 26 cm, English/French/German, Kerber

sions. He achieved international acclaim in 2008 with his African Spirits series, where he re-staged portraits of the icons of the Pan-African freedom and the Afro-American civil rights movements.

This book offers an overview of Fosso’s four decades of diverse and unusual work.

352 p, 171 images, 24 × 28 cm, English, Steidl/The Walther Collection

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WILLIAM WEGMAN FOTO M U S E U M D E N H AAG

September 5, 2020 — January 3, 2021. Photo: William Wegman: Constructivism, 2014

4 0 Y E A R S H AS S E L B L A D AWA R D H A S S E L B L A D F O U N D AT I O N , G O T H E N B U R G

The showcase Celebrating Photography is dedicated to the Hasselblad Award winners of the past 40 years: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Sebastião Salgado, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Hiroshi Sugimoto – the list of represented artists reads like a Who’s Who of photography. Of course, the number of winners also marks the passage of time: in 1980, the first Hasselblad Award was presented to Lennart Nilsson; in 2020, the most recent edition was awarded to Alfredo Jaar. In the course of these 40 years, there have been profound changes to the topics of the winning works, as well as the approaches and possibilities within the photographic medium.

“The majority of award winners have worked in the classic genres of documentary photography, portraiture, still life, street photography and landscape photography. But there are also more conceptual works that reflect the gravitation of the award towards contemporary art over the past 20 years,” Dragana Vujanović Östlind, Chief Curator at the Hasselblad Foundation, explains. As a result, the exhibition presents a wide spectrum of visual styles – and celebrates their representatives as the artists, innovators, activists and rebels they truly are.

September 11, 2020 — January 17, 2021.

Photo: Malick Sidibé, Nuit de Noël, 1963

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OUT OF THE S H A D OWS M O PA , S A N D I E G O

Technological advances and innovative perspectives: nine contemporary Chinese photographers present experimental works that challenge the traditional aesthetics of their medium. The showcase highlights a dynamic evolution spanning three decades, and presents photography as a platform for bold visual expression.

July 4, 2020 — Jan. 3, 2021. Photo: Yang Fudong, Still of Liu Lan, 2003

SA RA H M O O N M U S É E D ’A R T M O D E R N E D E PA R I S

As Marielle Hadengue, she worked as a model – but under her artist name of Sarah Moon, she built an illustrious career as a self-taught photographer. Her imagery is characterised by a poetic, often dreamlike visual style that blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, emergence and transience. Instead of following a chronological order, PastPresent outlines the artist’s oeuvre as an interweaving of different eras,

typologies and themes – taking viewers into a mysterious world that fluctuates between transparency, mirages, reflections and obscurity.

September 18, 2020 — January 10, 2021. Photos: Sarah Moon, Le pavot, 1997 (very top), Sarah Moon, La mouette, 1998 (top)

Photos: © Malick Sidibé; © William Wegman; © Sarah Moon; © Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum Photos

When Wegman acquired his first dog, a Weimeraner, he named it after his favourite artist: Man Ray. Since then, Weimeraners have been his trusted companions – and his muses. Being Human presents works from 40 years of collaboration with his four-legged subjects – Man Ray, Fay Wray, Candy, and their offspring.

P O RT RA I T ( S ) # 8 C E N T R E C U LT U R E L D E V I C H Y

Now in its eighth year, the festival in Vichy is dedicated to the art of portraiture.

The 2020 edition comprises 12 exhibitions displayed in various galleries and along the main promenade. From July 17, the open-air display Cimarron by French photographer Charles Fréger presents the fascinating masks and costumes used by descendants of enslaved Africans in America.

From September 5, the festival showcases works by Rima Samman, Ed Alcock, Paolo Verzone and Leica Oskar Barnack Award winner Claudine Doury, among others.

Magnum photographer and 1988 LOBA winner Chris Steel-Perkins will be represented with an exhibition of his series, The Teds. Created in the years from 1976 to 1979, the project documents the resurgence of the Teddy Boys, a British youth subculture originally from the 1950s. In contrast to Punks, the secondwave Teds of the seventies wore smart attire and sleek hairstyles. The British photographer sought them out in dance halls and pubs, on streets and in parking lots, and portrayed them in their tailored jackets, drainpipe trousers and Elvis quiffs. Today his images are icons of British social documentary photography – a perfect presentation of youthful rebellion in the age of Rock ’n’ Roll.

July 17 — October 25, 2020.

Photo: Chris Steele-Perkins: Southend, England, 1977

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O S K A R A N R AT H E R : E V E RY M A N

A unique photographic premiere: images from the archives of Salzburg photographer Oskar Anrather (1932– 2016). The theatre piece, Jedermann: Das Spiel vom Sterben des Reichen Mannes (Everyman: The Game of the Rich Man’s Death) by Hugo von Hofmannsthals, has featured at the Salzburg Festival for one hundred years. It has been performed in front of the city’s cathedral over 700 times – a historic tradition to be continued this August. Even more than the play itself, it is the actors who spark the interest of both public and tabloid media each year. It is an honour, and 108 |

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at the same time a challenge, to be cast in the leading roles: the ‘Buhlschaft’ (lover), as much as the ‘Jedermann’.

Great experience and stage presence are necessary to imbue the characters with the desired dramatic impact. The role of the lover – with minimal text but drawing maximum attention – is discussed in particular each year. So, it is not surprising that the list of performers over the century is rather like a Who’s Who of the theatre world.

A Master of the Leica, Anrather was also a press photographer for the Salzburg Festival, which included covering the Jedermann. His excep-

tional photos span from 1965 to 1998.

An established part of the festival for so long, the play also has a ephemeral side, which Anrather managed to capture effectively. While voices and dialogue are missing, the sets, costumes, gestures, mimicry and poses convey a very precise and lively impression of each production. ULRICH RÜTER Photos: Curd Jürgens in the lead role in 1973; Gert Voss as the Jedermann and Maddalena Crippa as the lover July 31 — November 7, 2020, Leica Galerie Salzburg, Gaisbergstr. 12, 5020 Salzburg, www.leica-galerie-salzburg.com

Photos: Leica Gallery Salzburg © Oskar Anrather

L E I CA GA L L E RY SA LZ BU RG

LEICA GALLERIES S ÃO PAU L O

Not known at time of publication BRA | 01240–000 São Paulo, Rua Maranhão, 600 Higienópolis SINGAPORE

Not known at time of publication SIN | Singapore, Raffles Hotel Arcade, #01-20/21, 328 North Bridge Rd., 188719 STUTTGART

Claus Friedrich Rudolph: Voll. Fett. Lecker.

Esther Haase exhibits in Constance (l, m); London presents Chris Steele-Perkins (r.)

BA N G KO K

LOS ANGELES

Not known at time of publication

The 6 x 6 Show: Neal Preston, Jesse Diamond, Maggie Steber, Deborah Anderson, Alan Schaller, Jeff Garlin

THA | 10330 Bangkok, 2nd Floor, Gaysorn Village, 999 Ploenchit Road BOSTON

Leica Women Foto Project Exhibition: Debi Cornwall, Yana Paskova & Eva Woolridge

Photos: © Ester Haase: The Perfect Jump, Samuel, Hotel Westminster Paris 2012 + Fish and Chips with the Queen, London 2018; © Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum Photos: Camden Palace Welcome, London 1980s

USA | Boston, MA 02116, 74 Arlington St. March 5 — October 25, 2020 C O N S TA N C E

Esther Haase: Move!

GER | 78462 Constance, Gerichtsgasse 10 July 29 — October 23, 2020 DÜSSELDORF

Anatol Kotte: Proyecto Habana GER | KÖ Galerie, Königsallee 60, 40212 Düsseldorf March 13 — August 29, 2020 FRANKFURT

Exhibition with Pictures from the Collection of Renowned Photographers GER | 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Großer Hirschgraben 15 September — January 2021 KYOTO

Kei Ogata: Koha no Shozo (Portraits of cool Japanese) JPN | Kyoto, 570–120 Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku August 1 — November 5, 2020 LONDON

Chris Steele-Perkins: The Pleasure Principle GBR | London, 64–66 Duke Street W1K 6JD February 21 — August 24, 2020

USA | West Hollywood, CA 90048, 8783 Beverly Boulevard July 16, 2020 — January 10, 2021 MADRID

PhotoEspaña: Elliott Erwitt ESP | 28006 Madrid, Calle de José Ortega y Gasset 34 July 1 — October 9, 2020 MELBOURNE

Nick Rains: The Heart of Australia AUS | Melbourne, VIC 3000, Level 1 St Collins Lane, 260 Collins Street June — September 2020 MILAN

Not known at time of publication ITA | 20121 Milan, Via Mengoni 4 NUREMBERG

Michael Friedel: Moments in Western Germany 1955–1976

GER | Calwer Straße 41, 70173 Stuttgart July 7 — October 17, 2020 SUZHOU

Wanimal: Blue (Unnude) CHN | Suzhou, Moonlight Dock, No.1 Guanfeng Street, Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu July 20 — September 10, 2020 TA I P E H

Alan Schaller: Metropolis TWN | Taiwan, No. 3, Ln. 6, Qingtian St., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106 May 25 — September 30, 2020 TO KYO

Kundo Koyama: Restaurant JPN | Tokio, 6-4-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku July 23 — November 3, 2020 WA R S AW

Pawel Sadaj: Medusa Hotel POL | 00–496 Warsaw, Mysia 3 June 18 — August 18, 2020 WETZLAR

Franziska Stünkel: Coexist GER | 35578 Wetzlar, Am Leitz-Park 5 February 6 — September 27, 2020

GER | 90403 Nuremberg, Obere Wörthstr. 8 July 18 — September 26, 2020

VIENNA

PRAGUE

AUT | 1010 Vienna, Walfischgasse 1 End of June — October 17, 2020

Not known at time of publication

Phil Hill: The Racing Photographer

TCH | 110 00 Prague 1, Školská 28

ZINGST

PORTO

Nomi Baumgartl: Eagle Wings – Protecting the Alps

Not known at time of publication POR | 4000-427 Porto, Rua d. Sá da Bandeira, 48/52

GER | 18374 Zingst, Am Bahnhof 1 September 1 — December 10, 2020

SALZBURG

Oskar Anrather: Das Spiel vom Sterben des reichen Mannes AUT | 5020 Salzburg, Gaisbergstr. 12 July 31 — November 7, 2020

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“OUR P H OTO G RAP H I C ART I STS AR E R E A L W H I S T L E B LOW E R S .”

I N T E RV I E W

During the summer, La Gacilly, a small community in Brittany, is transformed into a large, open-air venue. Stéphanie Retière-Secret, Executive Director, and Founding President Auguste Coudray, speak about this unique outdoor event.

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Photos: © Tomás Munita

Left and above: Tomás Munita (b. 1975), from his Patagonia’s Cowboys exhibition, 2014

LFI: Over the years, La Gacilly Photo Festival has become an appreciated venue for photography. What makes your festival so special?

AUGUSTE COUDRAY: We intend to showcase ethical and humanistic photography from the fields of art and photojournalism, that questions our relationship to the world and our environment. In 2004, when the Festival first emerged at La Gacilly after it was founded in 2003, it was initially intended to show the beauty of the world and the dangers that threatened it. Over the years, the photographic artists we welcome have become real whistle blowers, the empathetic or outraged witnesses of a world where something is clearly amiss.

Today, our socially responsible and artistic commitment remains absolute, and confirms absolutely the mission

we have set ourselves from the very beginning: to reconnect people with the living world.

How do you do that, connect people with the living world?

STÉPHANIE RETIÈRE-SECRET: Two themes are addressed each year, one that focuses on contemporary creation, specific to one country or continent, and one that explores a social and environmental issue. Moreover, the festival rolls out sustainable initiatives and strives to contribute to the transition to a greener economy and outlook, with concrete action such as its commitment to Drastic On Plastic.

Our militant stance has been further asserted by the publication of a manifesto setting out all the association’s values and commitments.

LFI:

Photography is a suitable medium to draw attention to trouble spots.

COUDRAY: Since its inception in 2004,

La Gacilly Photo Festival has gained recognition for its commitment to the major environmental challenges facing our societies. As a highly unique medium working to raise the alarm and propose solutions, we have recently restated our commitment to playing a key role in the ecological and societal transition. Now, more than ever, we need to honour those commitments.

Our ambition is simple: to become a photography festival with a mission, recognized for its commitment and its ability to bring people together around a re-enchanted future.

LFI:

How did the festival come to life?

RETIÈRE-SECRET: Founded in 2003,

every summer from June to September, the association of La Gacilly Photo Festival founded by Jacques Rocher and chaired by Auguste Coudray since →

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2008, offers free access to an immersive and ambulatory photographic experience in the heart of twenty or so open air galleries. Photographs adorn the streets, gardens and alleyways of La Gacilly, with outstanding buildings and a natural heritage, providing the perfect backdrop to the thousand or so images on display.

COUDRAY: Every summer some 300 000 people come to La Gacilly Photo Festival with family or friends to enjoy large-format, open-air exhibitions of some of the greatest names and emerging talents in photography.

Planning this year’s edition must have been a special challenge.

RETIÈRE-SECRET: First, we are thrilled to say that we will be there this summer. However, this year, the coronavirus pandemic is forcing us to push LFI:

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beyond boundaries, to test the range of possibilities and envisage protective barriers that will change the style.

COUDRAY: This pandemic was the occasion to focus on the essential. I would say that the greatest success is that we jumped on the opportunity to share more, to be closer, to revisit the themes for more openness to the world, more beauty. And to remind us and everyone else that La Gacilly Photo Festival is also for local people. Traders, craftsmen, the municipality, the inhabitants have taken over the festival, they are involving themselves by offering us some of their time. They support us in setting up the photographs, alongside many volunteers. Our dearest wish is to offer the extraordinary in the ordinary everyday of all local people.

COUDRAY: The festival is outdoors and

this speciality offers us the chance to come up with new ways of presenting photography. Of course there are technical difficulties, because the festival last four months and we also have to think about the second presentation in Baden, Austria. Our intention always is to create an encounter between a photographer, his works and the public, that provides a unique experience.

RETIÈRE-SECRET: Our environmental commitment forces us to work on new materials, and to enter into a dialogue with our laboratories and technical partners, in order to minimize our impact on the environment without downsizing our level of requirements in terms of image quality.

Every edition of the festival runs under a theme. This year’s theme

LFI:

You do so by presenting photographic works in large format open air displays. What are the biggest challenges in technical terms?

LFI:

Photos: © Luisa Dörr (2), © Cássio Vasconcellos, © Pablo Corral Vega (2), © Estate of Emanuel Honoration Vázquez

Clockwise from the top left: Pablo Corral Vega (b. 1966), The Hymn of the Andes; Martin Bernetti (b. 1968), Emergency; Emanuel Honoration Vázquez (1893–1924); Pablo Corral Vega (b. 1966), The Hymn of the Andes. Left side clockwise from left: Luisa Dörr (b. 1988), Mulheres (2); Cássio Vasconcellos (b. 1965), Au-delà du réel

at La Gacilly Photo Festival will be Viva Latina! How did you choose it?

RETIÈRE-SECRET: The theme was chosen according to world news. Therefore, there are several good reasons why we wanted to train the spotlight on Latin American photography. Firstly, because we’ve been moved by the huge fires that have blazed through the Amazon rainforestin recent months.

Caused by human action and amplified by climate change, they serve as a reminder that, although we are perfectly capable of destroying nature, we cannot control it. Also, the entire continent has been sinking into chaos, as if a curse had spread from the plains of Patagonia to the highest peaks of the Andes: in Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina, the time had come for a political clear-out, culminating in a serious economic and social crisis.

COUDRAY: For this 17th La Gacilly Photo Festival, which we have joyfully titled Viva Latina!, we wanted to showcase a form of photography that is strongly imbued with the complexity of this continent’s history and all its revolutions and hopes, with its tangle of customs, where dreams of the West merge with shamanistic beliefs, and where the fervour of its society is marked by violence and a powerful zest for life. Whether hailing from Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico or Argentina, all the photographers capture the diversity of the continent’s people, explore the urban chaos, and decry the damage that is being inflicted on nature, all with a certain sense of poetry, creativity or humour.

Above all, they represent a photographic art that is brimming with energy and inventiveness.

COUDRAY: The survival of a new cul-

ture – the culture of tomorrow. We need to create a new, sustainable economic model for our festival, and for cultural events. We must, together, work on a common purpose.

INTERVIEW: Carla Susanne Erdmann

AU G U ST E C O U D RAY founded the festival

in 2003 together with Jacques Rocher, a photography aficionado, son of the cosmetic industrialist Yves Rocher and current mayor of La Gacilly. Auguste Coudray is the chairman of the Festival Association since 2008.

S T É P H A N I E R E T I È R E -S E C R E T has been in charge of the Association of La Gacilly Photo Festival as Executive Director, since September 2018.

F E STIVAL: 17th Edition, Viva Latina! July 1 to October 31, 2020, La Gacilly, Brittany, France; festivalphoto-lagacilly.com; 3rd Edition, All Eyes East, July 14 to October 26, 2020, Baden, Austria; festival-lagacilly-baden.photo

What do you think will be the biggest challenge in the future?

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LEICA FOTOGRAFIE I N T E R N AT I O N A L

N AT H A N A Ë L F O U R N I E R MY PICTURE

A kiss, a pastry box and a hungry dog: Nathanaël Fournier captured this intimate yet lighthearted scene in down town Toulouse.

72nd year | Issue 6.2020

LFI PHOTOGR A PHIE GMBH Burchardstraße 14, 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 Katrin Iwanczuk (senior editor), Denise Klink, Bernd Luxa, Danilo Rößger, David Rojkowski PICTURE DESK Carol Körting L AYOUT Thorsten Kirchhoff TR A NSL ATION, SUB-EDITING Robin Appleton, Hope Caton, Anna Sauper, Osanna Vaughn CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE Carla Susanne Erdmann, Katja Hübner, Ulrich Rüter, Holger Sparr, Katrin Ullmann M A NAGEMENT BOA RD Steffen Keil

Toulouse, France 2009

MEDIA SA LES A ND M A RKETING Samira Holtorf Phone: +49 / 40 / 2 26 21 12 72 Fax: +49 / 40 / 2 26 21 12 70 E-Mail: holtorf@lfi-online.de Valid ad-rate card No. 48, 1 January 2020 REPRODUCTION: Alphabeta, Hamburg PRINTER: Optimal Media GmbH, Röbel/Müritz PA PER: Igepa Profimatt

I have always enjoyed photographing lovers, as well as people who kiss and hold each other. It may sound like that’s an easy thing to do, but the challenge is to achieve a good photograph. Sometimes there is luck involved. When I noticed this couple on a small street in the city centre, I also noticed the pastry box the woman was holding in her right hand.

A dog that was passing by also noticed it – just at the right moment, when I pressed the shutter. I took this photograph in the autumn of 2009 in Toulouse, France, a few months after having moved there from my home town. That was not a good year for me. The only good thing was that I had a job for a couple of hours a day; I had to distribute flyers for a fitness club to passers-by. That meant I had a lot of time for wandering the streets with my Leica M6 and some Ilford films.

Born in northern France in 1982, Nathanaël Fournier got into photography in 2003.

In 2008 he saved up money to buy his first Leica: an M6 with a 50mm Summicron lens. Since then he has been photographing with whatever film he can afford (or steal).

L F I 7/ 2 0 2 0 W I L L A P P E A R O N S E P T E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 2 0

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DISTRIBUTION LFI (USPS no 0017912) is published 8 times per annum.

Subscription price per annum (including shipping) worldwide: 80 €; Digital subscription: 49 € 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.

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