[Leica] Leica and Anthropology

["Edward Gosfield III, MD" <egosfield@nni.com>]

Those looking for more published examples of fieldwork/reportage done with
Leica cameras may enjoy

"Saudades Do Brazil" University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1995 $29.95
trade paperback

by the famous anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss

he coyly says "i am not even an amateur" and that he "no longer has the
interest" but during his younger days he had two Leicas, "the latter an
improved model"--he never says which.  He and his Dad both tried to make
the "sharpest photos possible."

He took his Leica and a Voigtlander TLR (unspecified) to Brazil in 1935.  

Aesthetically the shots are surprisingly good, with interesting design and
composition.  They have been very nicely printed (photographically, i
mean), and the reproduction is not too bad, but certainly not up to the
quality of the best NY Graphic Society stuff etc.

He seems to have used a normal lens most (?all) of the time, and he usually
hasn't cropped the formats in reproducing the work, so it is usually easy
to tell which camera was used for which photo.  Pictures are of cities in
Brazil, and the various Amerind groups with which he stayed--Borroro,
Nambikwara, and the other subjects of Tristes Tropiques.  Some of the shots
are inevitably misexposed and grainy, but the subject matter is unique and
exotic.

I just found my copy remaindered, and you may be able to also.

I don't remember whether the book was mentioned here in the last couple of
years, so i thought i would bring it up. 

ted gosfield
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