Camera Straps and Robert Capa

But isn't the real question whether, deep down, underneath it all, did Capa wear boxers or briefs? 😀
 
Yeah, I'm keeping away from many threads now too.

Photography is fine, technique is good, equipment sometimes, buying and selling cameras and choosing a strap or bag is never interesting.
 
VinceC said:
>>Robert Capa used camera straps too ;-)<<

Capa used Contaxes instead of Leicas, so there is less interest among gear-oriented folks in examining his work for "glow" and optical perfection and what-not. For that matter, nobody pays all that much attention to Gene Smith, another Contax RF user. So we're left with the images themselves, no technical connection to them.

Leica enthusiasts have reduced Henri Cartier-Bresson to a ubiquitous HCB. Capa, Smith, Mydans, Duncan and the other seminal photojournalists who didn't exclusively use Leica are generally not studied in excruciating detail and kind of fall into a background whisper of greatness.

Well said. Sometimes one can have the impression , Cartier-Bresson, Winogrand and Salgado were the only good photogs ever lived.
This can't have to do with the pics tho. Watching the contribution of this HCB contest one can see that obviously only a handful of photogs have seen ever a photo of these gods of "RF photography", a term which did not exist at all when those gods were on the road.

bertram
 
>> Light-years ahead of the curve, these two!<<

The gentleman on the right (sporting a Barnack Leica) was George Rodger, another Life magazine photographer.
 
people her (most) are technocrats, collectors and E*bay browsers, rather talking about all sorts of technicalities than actually go out and take some decent photographs.

Nothing wrong about that, the photo hobby can be taking part in the digital or analog rat.race and publish your sublime images on the web as fast as possible ... or it can be a technical related hobby, liking camera, their functions and technique, which is everything that goes with a camera and lenses ... At least camera straps are photogrpahy related ....
 
Jon Claremont said:
Latest camera strap thread: just three hours old and already 13 posts and 39 views, it looks like it will run and run.

Robert Capa thread: 48 hours old with 3 posts and just 72 views, and probably dead now.

What is it with people that they would rather read and write about how they carry a camera than about one of the great photographers?

I really don't get it.

This is no criticism at all of the camera strap thread in itself, but bewilderment at the way people prioritise where they click and what they respond to.

Glad you noticed that, Jon. It is the result of soemthing called "internet-talking-about-photography", don't you know? :bang:

Now, on a side note, I suspect this thread will generate a lot of talking, including myself. We love to talk.

A great try is to shut this site down for two weeks and see how many of us commit suicide...
 
>>Who's capa?<<

Robert Capa. Co-founder and first president of Magnum. Widely regarded as the greatest photographer of World War II. Most famous photojournalist of his day ... comparable, say, to a CNN frontline reporter today. Iconic photos include a soldier at the moment of his being shot to death in Spanish Civil War ... D-Day landing photos from Omaha Beach ... Photo of one of last American soldiers to die in Europe. Career cut short when he was killed by a landmine in Vietnam in 1954.
 
Jupiter 8 would probably work fine. I suspect he was using an f/1.5 Sonnar, but nearly all his images look as though they were shot with a 50mm lens.
 
He was a brave man to get that close to the action with nothing longer than a 50. I'd need one of those things you see on the sidelines at football games. 🙂
 
Some of his photos are so out of focus and so camera shakey that it adds to the drama and indicates his own vulnerability. Although I doubt that was intentional.
 
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