Leica vs China

[Archiver]

I am not sure it offends anyone other than the government.

The number of pro-China citizens who are expressing outrage is considerable. Then there are those with a more mercantile perspective, who suggest that Leica shot themselves in the foot regarding one of their larger emerging markets.

The is the second time Leica Brazil have created a supposedly unsanctioned promotional film. Last time, it was for the M Monochrom, where it was implied that Robert Capa shot with a Leica, when in fact, he didn't. When Leica Brazil (I think it was the Sao Paulo boutique?) posted that on YouTube, there was a comment from Leica Germany that said this was unauthorized, and it should be removed immediately. Here's a link to the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk9kKgpkRbA

What's interesting is that once again, Leica Brazil have implied that historical war or conflict events were shot with a Leica.

This in no way detracts from the heroism of the photographers who took these images and got them out of China. One photographer gave a roll of of film to a French student who smuggled it out of China and gave it to AP later. Another had his film destroyed by PRC agents, but managed to hide that crucial roll of film in the toilet.

https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/charlie-cole-on-tiananmen/

 

[Keith]

There is no place you can start or finish with China's interference in the affairs of other countries. They currently take about a third of Australia's export output so our government treads very carefully around every accusation of their meddling in this country ... no matter what the evidence!

 

[ForestCap]

The number of pro-China citizens who are expressing outrage is considerable. Then there are those with a more mercantile perspective, who suggest that Leica shot themselves in the foot regarding one of their larger emerging markets.

Dispite angry nationalists, the "outrage" of Chinese netizen is mainly focused on the dramatization of the 1989 incident. The famous photo does have a strong image, but it does not tell even one tenth of the story of what, how, and why the incident happened. On the contrary the image often oversimplify the facts for casual (western) news readers.

Trivialising a multi-dimensional tragedy that actually did not push a country to the more open side is never good.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wo...hed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...4/gIQAhF1MEI_blog.html?utm_term=.4e4112a3c71c

 

[eckhardf]

Is this a new Leica advertisement? Are they trying to promote their brand...if so...where are the digital Leicas or what place do they have in this promotion?

 

[Brian Atherton]

This, in todays Graun:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...distances-itself-from-tiananmen-square-advert

 

[Keith]

This, in todays Graun:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...distances-itself-from-tiananmen-square-advert

I can't say this impresses me much but I guess it's to be expected. They have a lengthy association with the company that made and produced the ad but weren't aware of the content? 🙄

 

[Brian Atherton]

I can't say this impresses me much but I guess it's to be expected. They have a lengthy association with the company that made and produced the ad but weren't aware of the content? 🙄

My uniformed guess is that Leica took their eyes off the ball and now are in an unseemly scrabble to cover their backsides to limit the financial and political damage. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at their next board meeting!

 

[ptpdprinter]

I watched the video, it didn't seem like it was insulting China or making light of the tragedy in Tiananmen Square, but more of a 'thank you' to photographers that put themselves in risky situations so that other people get a better idea of the world around them. Even at the end of the video it says "This film is dedicated to those who lend their eyes to make us see".

So the segments of the video where the Chinese military is threatening the photograper and ransacking his room wouldn't cause offense to the Chinese government?

 

[Larry Cloetta]

China is a known quantity, but it’s a known quantity only outside China. The Guardian article lists a partial roster of Western companies who have not hesitated to be complicit with the Chinese government in its efforts to limit the freedom of the Chinese people. Leica isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last. Google and Apple, with the hold they have on the flow of information, are the most damaging.
But.....“Leica Camera AG must therefore distance itself from the content shown in the video and regrets any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn,” a spokesperson, Emily Anderson said” Leica isn’t regretting a “misunderstanding”, it’s publicly regretting that someone in its company mentioned something akin to the truth, about a murderous regime, a regime it wants to get in bed with in order to make more money. It’s as simple as that. I’m personally hugely pro-business in general, but reading this statement from Leica just makes your skin crawl. Or, at least, I think it should. They had to make a choice, and they have apparently made it.

One wonders if there is ever going to be a significant western business enterprise, who, when faced with the same (and it is always the same) blowback from the Chinese state, just issues this press release “President Xi, go to Hell.”
That’ll be the day.

 

[SaveKodak]

China is a known quantity, but it’s a known quantity only outside China. The Guardian article lists a partial roster of Western companies who have not hesitated to be complicit with the Chinese government in its efforts to limit the freedom of the Chinese people. Leica isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last. Google and Apple, with the hold they have on the flow of information, are the most damaging.
But.....“Leica Camera AG must therefore distance itself from the content shown in the video and regrets any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn,” a spokesperson, Emily Anderson said” Leica isn’t regretting a “misunderstanding”, it’s publicly regretting that someone in its company mentioned something akin to the truth, about a murderous regime, a regime it wants to get in bed with in order to make more money. It’s as simple as that. I’m personally hugely pro-business in general, but reading this statement from Leica just makes your skin crawl. Or, at least, I think it should. They had to make a choice, and they have apparently made it.

One wonders if there is ever going to be a significant western business enterprise, who, when faced with the same (and it is always the same) blowback from the Chinese state, just issues this press release “President Xi, go to Hell.”
That’ll be the day.

We're talking about a luxury brand here. Luxury brands largely deal in bulls**t, and Leica as it exists today is no exception. Strip away the BS and the M10 is basically a modified Canon 6D housed as a rangefinder. They get people to buy them because there is really no other option and they dress it up in fine clothes and fabulous marketing. (No shots, I want an M10 quite badly!)

This is NOT a company that is eager to help out the 'worker class'.

 

[Keith]

We're talking about a luxury brand here. Luxury brands largely deal in bulls**t, and Leica as it exists today is no exception. Strip away the BS and the M10 is basically a modified Canon 6D housed as a rangefinder. They get people to buy them because there is really no other option and they dress it up in fine clothes and fabulous marketing. (No shots, I want an M10 quite badly!)

This is NOT a company that is eager to help out the 'worker class'.

Them's fightin' words ... 😛😛😛😛

 

[filmtwit]

You'd be hard pressed to find many companies that are eager to help out the 'worker class' ...

This is NOT a company that is eager to help out the 'worker class'.

 

[CameraQuest]

Apparently Leica is currently in hotwater so to say over vieo that was released earlier today

https:// ***********.com /content/leica-camera-trouble-over-video-china?fbclid=IwAR2Q7_w6iEDoza4e97gjgjS3XXznBR3QcfZIOAsyJ3vB2tjFgINr_4Wc36g

Watch it while you can (the star part of the above is lav ida leica but as one word

This would not have been approved by Leica Corporate.

Its most likely a mistake by a local PR dept.

 

[Archiver]

This would not have been approved by Leica Corporate.

Its most likely a mistake by a local PR dept.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread. Leica Brazil are behind this one, and created a controversial short film with Saatchi and Saatchi in 2013 for the M Monochrom, which implied that Robert Capa took the photos of D-Day with a Leica. We know he didn't. But the ad made it look like he did.

The 'Hunt' film does the same thing, implying that a Leica was used to shoot a historical war/conflict image, where in fact it was not.

https://vimeo.com/57612840

The original YouTube post from Leica Brazil had a comment from Leica's main channel, stating that this was an unauthorized commercial and it was to be removed immediately.

It makes me wonder just how much distance the Leica mothership actually had from these ads. If Leica Brazil commissioned the Monochrom ad themselves without guidance from the mothership, okay, but surely Leica would have told them to confirm any future commercials before release? If what Leica Rumors says is correct, 'Hunt' was a year in production. Surely Leica head office would have known about this? 😕

 

[filmtwit]

I wonder how much of this might have been purposeful, let your subisdiary make it so you can get the free advertising out of the controversy and then blame it all on them when china get's all hot and bothered about it?

 

[CameraQuest]

Leica moves to distance itself itself from Tiananmen video

Leica moves to distance itself itself from Tiananmen video

I wonder how much of this might have been purposeful, let your subisdiary make it so you can get the free advertising out of the controversy and then blame it all on them when china get's all hot and bothered about it?

I don't think so.

REUTERS

Germany's Leica moves to distance itself from Tiananmen video

 

[Keith]

And a spokesperson for Saatchi and Saatchi has claimed the ad was approved by Leica! Like someone said earlier in this thread ... the next board meeting will be a beauty! lol

 

[Richard G]

It would be interesting to learn what effect these Leica videos have had. I just looked at the earlier '100' video. Its reenactment sequences of famous photographs is pretty tacky.

 

[filmtwit]

I don't think so.

REUTERS

Germany's Leica moves to distance itself from Tiananmen video

Ya, that's pretty much what they've done. Kind of genius if you think about it.

On a some what different note. a few years back I did work shop with Peter Turnley, who has literally spent most of his adult life doing the type of work you see in this video. He absolutely hated (and would correct us too) when we'd use "hunt" vocabulary when describing any form of photography.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Why didn't they include pictures taken by German Leica in their own, nazies concentraiton camps?

https://www.amateurphotographer.co....henri-cartier-bresson-iconic-photograph-15527