RE:[Leica] Photographer of the Century

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

 My vote would be for Cartier-Bresson. Not only is he the pre-eminent Leica 
user but he also created a visual language that some of us are trying to 
emulate. He was and maybe still is the master of the "single image" story. 
His pictures also can be very funny as well as poignant.
 The runner-up would have to be Lartique. There probably never has been a 
photographer who enjoyed himself more and where this joy of life shows in his 
images.
 Other candidates would be Imogen Cunningham for her perseverance and style, 
Ansel Adams for his technical mastery and Eugene Smith for the photographic 
essay.
 There are others; Kertez, Brassai, Doisneau, Sudek, Weston, Salgado, Erwitt, 
Richards and many more who have shown us the last century in images, but in 
my mind, it is HCB who is the clear winner. He also admits that it was his 
discovery of the Leica that got him started. He also has taught us that you 
do not have to have every lens or camera available to be good and that it is 
still the eye of the photographer that counts, not the box holding the film 
or the glass stuck on that box!
Tom A