[Leica] Re: Duncan and Leica M's

[Bill Welch <Bill.Welch@pressroom.com>]

This discussion of David Douglas Duncan sent me to my bookshelves for 
another book by him that some of you may recall. It's a small softbound 
black and white book published in 1968 called "I Protest." It consists of 
photos he took during eight days in February of that year with the 26th 
Regiment Marines at Khe Sanh while they were under intense attack. I 
remember it as a very powerful book, and it remains so. It includes about 
15 pages of text that he wrote before the seige ended. It pleads for an 
end to the war.

At the back there is a page of acknowledgements in which DDD describes 
his equipment at that time: 

	"Once again, I depend upon two Leicas (custom-built M3Ds), 
crossed bandolier-style on my chest. One Leica is fitted with a Leitz 
50mm F1.4 Summilux lens, and the other with a Canon 25mm F3.5 lens. Both 
lenses are fitted with medium yellow filters. In addition, hanging down 
the center of my chest, I carry a Nikon F with a Nikkor 200mm F4 lens, 
also fitted with a medium yellow filter. The film is Kodak Tri-X, 
developed in Kodak D-76 at the Life Magazine photo-lab in New York."
	 
He goes on, and it is accompanied by a rather detailed biography. It 
notes two Picasso books, by the way: The Private World of Pablo Picasso, 
and Picasso's Picassos. On the back cover is a photo of him, in flak 
jacket and helmet. Visible is the F (chrome, with Photomic head) and one 
of the black M3s. It has an accessory viewfinder and a chrome lens, so I 
assume it's the Canon 25.


Bill Welch