RE: [Leica] Shelley Mydans Dead at 86

["Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com>]

There is a nice chapter on the Mydans in John Leongards book on Life
Photographers.

Was it Carl that took the shot of the naked bubble gunner in the PBY
Catalina in the Pacific? I always thought it an amazing shot that somehow
expressed male vulnerability in the midst of war.

tim a

PS - we have 4 or 5 Catalinas out at the airport here still in regular use
(or Cansos as we Canucks call them). Used for waterbombing during forest
fire season. It's quite something to see a couple of them swoop down on a
lake together and scoop up water at full revs, ready for the next load!


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Marc James
> Small
> Sent: March 10, 2002 1:57 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Shelley Mydans Dead at 86
>
>
> At 07:51 AM 3/10/02 -0800, pmjensen wrote:
> >The Nikon you mention must have been, at least originally, a rangefinder.
> >Though maybe it's in the LUG archives, would you care to re-explain to
> >the naifs amongst us how or why some photojournalists chose the Leica,
> >some the Contax, others the Nikon (rangefinders)?
>
> Prior to the Korean War, most press photographers used a cut-film camera
> such as one of the Speed Graphics or the like.  In the late 1930's, the
> more daring had gone over to medium-format gear such as
> Rolleiflex TLR's --
> Time-Life was the first major publication to uniformly accept MF
> negatives;
>  at that time, most publications insisted on the larger cut-film
> negatives.
>
> At this point, only those with an independent reputation -- such as
> Eisenstaedt and Capa -- could get away with a miniature-format (35mm)
> camera.  Capa, for instance, began with a Leica but shifted to Contax
> before the Second World War -- he went ashore at D-Day bearing a
> Rolleiflex
> Automat and a Contax II.
>
> When the Korean War erupted, David Douglas Duncan began to use
> Nikon lenses
> on his Leica camera bodies, and introduced Mydans to the breed.  Mydans
> then both adopted the Japanese lenses and pushed their use on the folks
> back home.  I don't recall that the Nikon RF BODIES made much of a dent,
> though Capa was carrying one, along with a Contax II, at the time of his
> death in Indo-China.
>
> Mydans' influence on Time-Life together with their experience with Eisie's
> photography was sufficient to expand significantly the acceptability of
> 35mm gear by press photographers.
>
> Sal will undoubtedly correct all my many errors in this but, in
> my defense,
> one of my principal sources of information on Mydans is Sal's friend, Mike
> Fletcher.
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +276/343-7315
> Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!
>
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