Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/07/17
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Gerard: May I suggest that you check your history books on the subject of
Adolf Hilter, one I would recommand is "HILTER a study in tyranny" by
"ALAN BULLOCK" a very good book, Tony Stark.
TEMPUS VITAM REGIT
On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, Gerard Captijn wrote:
>=20
> >Just wondered if anyone else caught "A&E's biography" last night of Leni
> >Riefenstahl. There were a few shots of here with LTM's in the thirties a=
nd
> >an M3 in Africa in the fifties.
>=20
> The Riefenstahl subject continues to be highly controversial, 40 million
> deaths and half a century after the events. I do not think however that o=
ne
> can judge this Nazi-bitch on her effective marketing of Herr
> Schickelgr=FCber (Adolf's real name) whom she was so much in love with. T=
he
> issue is what is the real quality of her images?
>=20
> Imagery produced in Germany in the 1920 and 1930 was often innovative. Th=
e
> development of illustrated magazines (thanks to the new Leica) , the
> pictures from Bauhaus photographers and Riefenstahl's fascist pictures we=
re
> never seen before. Bauhaus photography was certainly the most powerful an=
d
> showed the way to photographers like Rodchenko, Modotti, Wolff, Ha=FCsser=
, etc.
>=20
> I think that the ultimate test for photographs, like paintings and music,
> is the test of time. How will our grand children judge Riefenstahl's work
> 50 years from now, when all people who still carry the Nazi horrors in
> their flesh will be dead? As we now judge the Pyramids or Angkor Wat,
> constructed with immense suffering and human loss.
>=20
> My guess would be that Riefenstahl will be catalogued as a second-level
> photographer, good at illustrating the collective subconscient of her day=
s
> but producing limited imagery, quite away from all-time universal human
> issues. I think that images as Margaret Burke-White's photographs,
> Avedon's portraits of people, Salgado's photographs or HCB's pictures wil=
l
> resist the test of time far better.
>=20
> People who don't like Riefenstahl's pictures because of the fascist
> connotations shouldn't worry too much though. As a good patriot, she
> photographed on on German Agfacolor rather than on American Kodachrome. A=
nd
> as the old Agfacolor became terribly purple/greenish within 5 years, ther=
e
> should not be left too much by now.
>=20
> =20
>=20