[Leica] B Klemm interview/exhibit

[Christer Almqvist <chris@almqvist.net>]

There is an interesting interview with Barbara Klemm on
http://www.monochrom.com/

Barbara Klemm is the grand lady of German newspaper photography; I would
not say grand old lady because she is just a year older than I am. She
works for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which was just recently voted
third best  newspaper worldwide by international businessmen (after
Financial Times and The New York Times). Photography is an important part
of this paper, and if you come across it, glance through it even if you do
not speak German.

There is an exhibition of Barbara Klemm's pictures at the Kronprinzenpalais
Unter den Linden in Berlin until 5th October and as a result there has been
many interviews with her. The interview referred to above (in German) is on
the website of a German photo store specializing in Fine Art Photography
supplies. The catalogue is a piece of art, as far away as you can get from
B&H, but they only carry a very limited selection of 35 mm cameras Leica,
Minox, Robot and Contax G2. Their website also includes past interviews,
e.g. with Newton.

In the interview Barbara, was asked what camera she used and replied: 'A
SLR (no brand name mentioned, seems they are all the same to her), and I
use an AF nowadays, but I have the feeling it does not focus as fast as I
do manually....... And I always carry a M6 with a wide angle lens. I like
it because you are not considered  quite professional with that camera, and
consequently people hardly notice you.'

There are several pictures of Barbara, and on one of them the camera is
easily identifiable. M6.

Further on she tells that she only does b&w work, always uses TriX exposed
at 800 indoors and FP4 (also pushed a bit) outdoors. She makes all her
prints herself, she made 600 for the exhibition, of which 250 were then
used. All her prints are on FB paper, except some PE prints for the paper.

If you are in Berlin, do not miss the exhibition!

- --
christer almqvist
eichenstrasse 57, d-20255 hamburg, fon +49-40-407111 fax +49-40-4908440
14 rue de la hauteur, f-50590 regnéville-sur-mer, fon+fax +33-233 45 35 58