Steve McCurry wins Leica award?

dreilly

dreilly

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Leica gives an award to a photographer famous for using Nikon gear? I know it's not about gear but about photography, but aren't there any Leica photographers that are also pretty amazing. Salgado for example, who uses Ms and Rs I believe?

I like McCurry's work...some of it is really stunning and instructive on the use of selective color. But I find the reports of his actual working style to be a bit disturbing or at least certainly not within my boundaries of photographic ethics. I might be quite naive on how often photojournalists stage photographs or manipulate scenes.

What do you think? Was this a good choice for the award?
 
dreilly said:
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Leica gives an award to a photographer famous for using Nikon gear? I know it's not about gear but about photography, but aren't there any Leica photographers that are also pretty amazing.QUOTE]

That's pretty irrelevant, though. If using Leica gear isn't a prerequisite to entering the competition there also should be no preference whatsoever given to photographers who do use Leicas. FWIW, Hasselblad's Masters award is also not restricted to photographers using Hasselblad cameras.

That being said, I really don't like McCurry's work at all so I don't quite agree with their choice.
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I think if an organization is going to give an award there should be no rules such as what equipment you use. But if it's a company, I don't understand why they would bother not keeping it limited to their own brand for the sake of marketing. "Tyler Hicks and Dorothy Hong use Canons to capture the world." "Lyndsey Addario uses Nikon to grace the pages of National Geographic." "Ken Maldonado and Angel Franco, NYC's last Leica news photographers" "Walker Evans and Polaroid, because only the image matters"

As a business why not capatalize on a good photographer by letting people know they use your equipment.
 
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On Leica's facebook wall they say:
The prize is awarded to photographers who have rendered outstanding service to the Leica brand and to the genre of photography.

How has McCurry rendered "...outstanding service to the Leica brand..." if he's never worked with one?
 
swoop; said:
But if it's a company, I don't understand why they would bother not keeping it limited to their own brand for the sake of marketing.
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If there are no great names left who use your equipment then your hall of fame will be somewhat empty.
 
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dreilly said:
...But I find the reports of his actual working style to be a bit disturbing or at least certainly not within my boundaries of photographic ethics. I might be quite naive on how often photojournalists stage photographs or manipulate scenes.
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Could I ask you elaborate on what you've heard? Sounds interesting...
 
Unless he hawks it to buy 3 Nikon D700s... 🙂

I read a review of one of his workshops that delved a bit into his style of working, and it wasn't for me. It seems pretty intrusive. The review was balanced though the person was quite unhappy, so I took it with more than a grain of salt. McCurry said in an interview that he worked alone without assistants, but the workshop participant has photographs of McCurry's assistant holding a reflector. Anyway, it could just be one person's disgruntled voice but it raises questions for me on how much of his work is "documentary" and how much of it is "portraiture". As portraiture it's gorgeous, as documentary work it might not be what I would consider directly representational. The Leica award seems to be for the most common "genre" of Leica photographers, which in my mind is street, unposed, documentary...
 
Neare said:
Now McCurry is going to be seen with a Leica M9. What better marketing could you want? 😀
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You're correct. If you put a leica in the hands of perhaps the most well known National Geographic photographer.....well, it just has to be good for business

Joe
 
McCurry has been quoted as saying that Leicas are "old-fashioned" cameras, which is why he was using Nikon (this was during his F100 days).

He now shoots Nikon D700 and Hasselblad H__, the D700 for documentary/street stuff, and the Hassy for portraiture.

I don't ever think he was classified as purely a documentarian...his most famous photographs are actually portraits (yet, they're street portraits).

I like his older work.

I HAVE read, though, that his workshops are basically, "you tag along with Steve as he shoots, and you're paying for his projects." I have no idea if that's fair or accurate...just feedback I've read from one of his workshops.
 
The Hasselblad award is very often given to photographers who don't use Hasselblads, at least not primarily. Why should the Leica award be any different? I think it's a tangible demonstration (albeit a minor one) of corporate integrity. And it sends the opposite message vs. the execrable gold-plated, ostrich-skinned designer garbage models.
 
David_Manning said:
McCurry has been quoted as saying that Leicas are "old-fashioned" cameras, which is why he was using Nikon (this was during his F100 days).

He now shoots Nikon D700 and Hasselblad H__, the D700 for documentary/street stuff, and the Hassy for portraiture.

I don't ever think he was classified as purely a documentarian...his most famous photographs are actually portraits (yet, they're street portraits).

I like his older work.

I HAVE read, though, that his workshops are basically, "you tag along with Steve as he shoots, and you're paying for his projects." I have no idea if that's fair or accurate...just feedback I've read from one of his workshops.
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I've read that he shoots the D3X with the 24-70 f/2.8 now. I think I saw a video where he was shooting this combo as well, so his gear is pretty close to Leica prices it seems.
 
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