Mercredi 13 Avril 2016 11:37:50 par Nour Alahiane-lechevalier dans Expositions

This camera changed the way we view the world. Forever. The falling soldier by Robert Capa, the puddle jumper by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Times Square kiss by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Vietnamese children fleeing from a Napalm attack by Nick Út, the Soviet flag being raised above the Berlin Reichstag by Yevgeny Khaldei – all these famous photographs are Leica images, and they have etched themselves deeply into our collective memory. It was the Leica’s compactness and innovative technology that made photographs like these possible. The Leica’s predecessors were, for the most part, clumsy, heavy cameras. They were unwieldy and designed to yield one photograph per glass negative. It was nearly impossible to use them in a spontaneous manner. Before the advent of the Leica, taking photographs amounted to a staging of reality. The compact Leitz camera made spontaneity as well as candid street photography possible.

© Fred Herzog

Dynamization, democratization, media revolution – great cultural changes are often attributed to technical innovations, and the introduction of the Leica 100 years ago is no exception. Just how can a small, black gadget produce such a superlative effect? Its pocket size, exchangeable lens, quiet operation, and fast shutter speeds made completely new fields of application, extreme angles, and spontaneity on an unheard-of scale became available to the photographer. Thanks to its use of standard cinema film, photography became a serial operation, affordable and available to everyone. The speed, freedom, and ease of operation it provided were a source of inspiration to photographers, and it met the needs of a dynamic age. Easily carried in one’s coat pocket, the camera sparked an enormous surge in photography, an immense sense of joy in experimentation, and an all-encompassing visual exploration of reality. The Leica thus set the standard for new horizons, speed, and aesthetic renewal, and it has retained its mythical status well into the digital age.