Leica in Stalin's Russia -- soviet editorial from 1934

[amirko]

Hi All,

I found interesting article in the old soviet photography magazine (Soviet Photo №1, 1934, p.30); it is about Leica and its virtues. In English --

http://emirco.blogspot.com/2013/02/dont-fancy-leica.html

couple of quotes:

...Leica” has flaws: even in the hands of most experienced masters it does not yield depth, conceals distance, and kills subtle nuances of light...

...Another common drawback: working with “Leica” will “undermine the creative discipline”, so to speak, corrupting the photography worker...

Read if you like old weird stuff; do not forget to take some vodka in a process, it helps.

Cheers!
Emir

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

thanks for sharing...
i find it interesting that the same arguments
are used in the modern context in new vs old,
film vs digital discussions...hahaha

"Another common drawback: working with “Leica” will “undermine the creative discipline”, so to speak, corrupting the photography worker. "Leica" provides an opportunity to make a lot of shots in the short time. Undisciplined, nutty shooter, using this quality of “Leica”, stops thinking of the composition, loses himself, begins clicking at random, stretching luck – “let’s shoot many” – he thinks, – “should be something good to choose from later”. Random frames are rarely come up good and photographer not only stops in his personal growth, but easily rolls back."

 

[lam]

Very interesting insight into the mind back then!

 

[grandallj]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting.

 

[amirko]

here is link to the actual article:

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Soviets were ahead of time of some dedicated "my Nikon is better" posters, eh?

 

[rinzlerb]

The article is actually thoughtful and reasonably well written, probably more balanced than many contemporary reviews. It's funny to see that Leica, and the 35mm format in general, was viewed as the modern, quick-and-dirty technology supplanting the superior but big-and-slow larger formats, leading to indiscriminant picture snapping. Exactly what us contemporary Leica and film sniffers say about digital. When we have full waking-hours retinal real-time image capture we'll probably say the same thing about the good old digital camera days.

 

[upceci]

Imagine doing street photography in 1938 Moscow... Soviet Union made some of the most visually stunning movies in history of films, so they knew a thing or two about photography.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

A lot of American and British magazines of the period ran articles along these lines ie "Glass Whole Plate Good" and "35mm Bad" and some still do. There might even be one or two on these forums, lurking somewhere.

And during the war a few articles appeared in the USSR along the lines of the "Spitfire is OK but... ".

Regards, David

 

[paradoxbox]

People who shoot medium format are STILL saying the same things - and I think that in many cases they're right.

 

[Godfrey]

I wonder if Socrates shouted out his window, "Hey you kids! Get off the lawn!" ... 🙂

G

 

[charjohncarter]

Free trade, lower taxes, less government, personal responsibility equals prosperity. And better cameras.

 

[hepcat]

C'mon people, catch a clue! I'm sorry, that 35mm "miniature format" will never amount to anything.

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm old enough to remember hearing that from the old timers even when I was getting started in the late '60s and early '70s.

 

[Monochrom]

That part catched me 🙂

C'mon people, catch a clue! I'm sorry, that 35mm "miniature format" will never amount to anything.

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm old enough to remember hearing that from the old timers even when I was getting started in the late '60s and early '70s.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

We ought to do a list; it probably started with whole plate versus half plate (but I've my doubts about APS versus 110).

And AF vs. RF vs. Manual Focus; manual settings vs P mode; S mode vs A mode; ortho vs. panchromatic; tripod vs. monopod; kick starts vs electric starters; clay pipes vs briars; metal vs. plastic; M6 vs. M7 and so and so on....

Regards, David

 

[amirko]

I think earliest was photography vs painting in early photography years and it actually was very, very heated discussion

 

[hepcat]

Hi,

We ought to do a list; it probably started with whole plate versus half plate (but I've my doubts about APS versus 110).

And AF vs. RF vs. Manual Focus; manual settings vs P mode; S mode vs A mode; ortho vs. panchromatic; tripod vs. monopod; kick starts vs electric starters; clay pipes vs briars; metal vs. plastic; M6 vs. M7 and so and so on....

Regards, David

And REAL Jeeps have ROUND headlights. <chuckle>

Ok, maybe you need to have been in the Jeep world before the 1980s to appreciate that one.

 

[Socrates]

I wonder if Socrates shouted out his window, "Hey you kids! Get off the lawn!" ... 🙂

G

No I didn't 😀

 

[Godfrey]

No I didn't 😀

I bet your father did tho... youngster! ;-)

G

 

[MartinP]

Those damn dry-plates spoiled real photography, I'm telling you . . .
😉