[Leica] HCB

[wvl <wvl@marinternet.com>]

Mark R. makes a good point. A month ago I visited an exhibit of 160
prints from the "Europeans" collection of HCB's work at Louisana Museum
north of Copenhagen. They ranged all the way from his Spain photos of
the 1930's thru some 1980's and a single shot of wreaths in honor of
Princess Diana. Print gradation and sharpness of images was not great in
many of the pre-WWII prints.(Pause, while I don my Nomex flameproof
suit). I suspect some of the prints may have been made from copy negs of
old prints or book pics. Later work was awesome as we have come to
expect. I have seen these same photos in coffee table books and they
were much better. Actually, the collection is published in such a book,
Europeans.  There was a slide show and lecture by the museum photo guru
who held forth at great length about HCB.(I assume his talk correlated
with the slides of the exhibit because I did not understand a word of
it. My friend, however, is a native Danish speaker and assured me it was
about HCB by a speaker who seemed to have little knowledge of HCB). 

At one point the speaker dared to discuss the quality of HCB's
negatives. He projected a photo of the negative of a Frenchman leaping
over a broad pool of water. I was amazed to see a negative on film with
perforations on only one side! The frame number 39 was visible but no
manufacturer's info. Later, during the question period my friend asked
about the odd film with one perf. Speaker said he had not noticed that
and did not know anything about it. Here's one for the LUG. Was this
some copy film or did there used to be single perf 35mm film? This is
the best place I know to ask that question.

The movie about HCB discussed by several LUGGERS was shown with English
subtitles. I also noticed HCB firing away as fast as possible, often not
using the viewfinder.(Zen Photography?)

It was a powerful experience to see a major collection of HCB's work.
Also, nice to see some of his prints are quite ordinary. It is the
subject, after all.

Bill Lawlor

The slide copies of the exhibits had much better gradation and sharpness
than many of the same gallery prints on display.

 I've recently been looking at old photographs from the 1930s and 1940s.
> I love the look of these photographs, especially those which seem to be
> taken on slightly overcast days, or indoors with large, slightly
> diffused lightsources close by (though not necessarily in the fame).
><snip>
Are you really looking at prints or are you looking at a high quality
coffee table book?
Mark Rabiner