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L e i c a F o t o g r a f i e I n t e r n at i o n a l E n g l i s h E d i t i o n
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Ilse Bing Alixandra Fazzina Caleb Stein
Jan C. Schlegel
Helmut Newton, Sie kommen (dressed), French Vogue, Paris 1981, © Helmut Newton Estate
HELMUT NEWTON SUMO MARK ARBEIT. GEORGE HOLZ. JUST LOOMIS THREE BOYS FROM PASADENA
PHOTO COLLECTION OF HELMUT AND JUNE HELMUT NEWTON FOUNDATION | MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY | 7/6/2019 - 10/11/2019 JEBENSSTRASSE 2, 10623 BERLIN | TUE, WED, FRI, SAT, SUN 11-7, THU 11-8
Lfi 6. 2019
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9 6 | L f i . G a ll e r y
8 2 | L e i c a V- Lux 5
Over 25 000 photographers present more than half a million pictures in the LFI Gallery. Among others in this issue, a bar scene reminiscent of Edward Hopper and extraterrestrials with long tentacles
To a large degree, the new V-Lux 5 resembles a singlelens reflex camera, though it is smaller and lighter. Compared to its predecessor, the V-Lux (Typ 114) it offers fine tuning par excellence. It is operated by means of a diversity of keys and dials
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88 | Leica Q2 A consistent continuation of the Q series, the new model is particularly appealing thanks to the grandiose resolution of its new 47-megapixel image sensor. Berlin photographer, Peer Kugler put the Q2 to the test
107 | Books Ram Shergill: from the Goldmine series, Almería, Spain 2017
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Jan C. Schlegel 6 | C r e at u r e s o f t h e S e v e n S e a s
Schlegel photographed his fish market ‘catch’ in his hotel room, and transferred the creatures’ fragile beauty to rare platinum prints
Caleb Stein The new Leica V-Lux 5 has been optimised in some essential areas
New publications by Guenter Zorn, Gerhard Vormwald, Fred Baldwin and Alessia Rollo
2 4 | D o w n by t h e Hu d s o n
A small town somewhere in the USA: the photographer captured carefree moments – over a number of summers
Alixandra Fazzina 3 6 | Y e m e n C o n t r a fl o w
Djibouti has become a meeting point for Africans fleeing to the Arabian Peninsula and refugees fleeing from the war in Yemen
Ilse Bing
The Beauty of Lines, Barcelona; Summertime Salon, New York; Brassaï at the Foam, Amsterdam; PhEST in Monopoli, Italy 1 0 9 | L e i c a G a ll e r i e s The programme of Leica Galleries around the world including, among others, Nobuyoshi Araki in Bangkok, Alex Webb in Wetzlar and Tim Page in Melbourne 1 1 0 | I n t e rv i e w A conversation with photographers Carlos Javier Ortiz and Danny Wilcox Frazier, as well as Ruddy Roye, founder of the @theleica10 collective 114 | my picture This picture from Gael Turine’s Aveuglement series represented a turning point in his career 114 | imprint
5 2 | qu e e n o f t h e L e i c a
She was one of the most impressive photographers of the 20th century, and produced a self-portrait that has made her immortal: Ilse Bing (1899–1998)
100 Digital Features 62 | S M agaz i n O n l i n e
Working without specifications: the Digital Features format, unique to the S magazine website, celebrates its 100th issue
Cover: Jan C. Schlegel, Palinurus Elephas from the Creatures of the Seven Seas series
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C r e at u r e s of the s e v e n s e as LeicA S
Jan C. Schlegel
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T h e n u m o r i e n ta l i s
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Caleb Stein D o w n b y t h e h u ds o n
With his project Down by the Hudson, photographer Caleb Stein extracts a timeless magic from the everyday lives of the people living in a nondescript suburb in the United States. The outcome is a homage to summer, to the community and to a small town that captured the photographer’s heart.
Everyone is welcome in the cool water. At the swimming hole on the edge of Poughkeepsie, Stein transfers the essence of street photography to the water
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LeicA M
Alixandra Fazzina Y e m e n C o n t r af l o w
In the East African country of Djibouti, refugees aiming to reach the Arabian Peninsula cross paths with people fleeing from the war in Yemen. Both perspectives appear equally hopeless: Fazzina reveals these counter migration movements in an ambitious long-term project.
Yemeni refugees are brought by speedboat from their camp in Obok to Djibouti (city), where they hope for a better life
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L e i c A C L ASSIC
Ilse Bing QUEEN O F THE LE I C A
She was one of the most important avant-garde artists in the field of 20th century photography. Her trademark: the Leica. Her life’s journey took the passionate photographer from Frankfurt to Paris, and then on to New York. In collaboration with the Berinson Gallery in Berlin, LFI presents Ilse Bing’s most iconic image along with a selection of lesser-known works.
A key icon of modernist photography: few Leica images are as widely recognised as this self portrait created in Ilse Bing’s apartment in Mont parnasse, Paris, in 1931
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LeicA s | SL
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d i g i ta l f e at u r e s Every two weeks the S magazine presents an exclusive Digital Feature highlighting the creativity of Leica S and SL photographers. It is a space where they can demonstrate who they are and what they stand for.
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Joseph Chen – a science-fiction scenario: the Gods & Monsters fashion series
Verena Heller-Ghanbar allows her Fairytale Dreams to come true
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u n i v e r sa l g e n i u s L e i c a v- lu x 5
With the V-Lux 5, Leica have added a new member to their family of compact cameras. At first glance it barely seems to differ from its predecessor – yet in reality, the V-Lux 5 represents fine-tuning par excellence.
To the casual observer, the new Leica V-Lux 5 might appear almost identical to its predecessor, the V-Lux (Typ 114). Both feature the same lens and sensor, and share numerous characteristics – whereby the term ‘reduction to the essentials’ is not exactly the first thought that springs to mind: an abundance of automatic modes and functions relieves photographers from having to make any settings-related decisions – provided this is what they desire. And with its 25 – 400mm equivalent super-zoom, the V-Lux 5 covers focal lengths that are not represented anywhere else in Leica’s product portfolio. Perhaps this does not reflect a purist’s dream; but those who like to travel light whilst still having access to all photographic possibilities will find the 82 |
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V-Lux 5 an ideal companion. In fact, it would be entirely unsurprising if even mechanical camera enthusiasts were to start wondering whether the V-Lux 5 might offer the very features they have been missing from their current camera. evolu tion, n ot r evolu tion . It is certainly
fair to ask why the V-Lux 5 shares so many traits with its predecessor which was, after all, introduced all the way back in 2014. Firstly, we should point out that, despite their overt similarities, the new V-Lux 5 does, of course, offer numerous advantages over the older model. Secondly, the pace of development in the field of digital cameras has inevitably slowed down, with an overall shift from revolutionary leaps towards
effective fine-tuning. In this particular case, the revolution already took place in 2014, when the V-Lux (Typ 114) marked an exciting departure from the tiny sensors commonly featured in compact cameras – whose limited light sensitivity was the reason for the low-quality images associated with compacts at the time. Another explanation for the concept behind the new V-Lux 5 is rooted specifically in Leica’s compact-camera partnership with Panasonic: Leica afford themselves the luxury of integrating only a select few of their jointly-designed cameras into their own product portfolio – essentially cherry-picking the best models to be rebranded with the Leica dot. It is no secret that every digital
compact camera in Leica’s catalogue has a Panasonic counterpart. The undeniably steeper price-tag of the red-dot version is easily justified by the greater range of included accessories and, in particular, the considerably higher resale value. The V-Lux family is based on Panasonic’s FZ cameras, whose extreme zoom ranges necessitated a construction that could no longer be labelled as compact: the term ‘bridge camera’ is much more fitting, as FZ models really are half-way to being system cameras. The V-Lux (Typ 114) was based on the FZ1000, which set new standards in compact camera photography – thanks both to its significantly increased sensor size and the DC Vario-Elmarit 9.1– 146 f/2.8–4 Asph lens. →
As with all models in this series, the V-Lux 5 resembles a mirror reflex camera – albeit smaller and a great deal more light-weight. The operating concept involves numerous keys and dials, many of which can be assigned functions of the photographer’s choice
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T h e Q 2 at Ni g h t Leica q2
The Leica Q2 follows on from one of Leica’s most popular cameras, and is distinguished by an enormous leap in sensor resolution. Photographer Peer Kugler has put the new camera through its paces.
In terms of external appearance, the Leica Q2 is almost indistinguishable from its predecessor – the greatest difference is the new model’s high-resolution sensor
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The new Leica Q2 has already developed quite a following. This should come as no surprise, given the great popularity of its predecessor, which impressed photographers by combining the outstanding image quality of a fixed-lens, fullframe camera with all the conveniences of modern digital photography, including an AF function. The Q has proven to be a camera you can keep with you at all times, while its exceptionally sharp rendition positions it in an entirely different league than any smartphone camera. The Leica Q2 now continues this success story. Its most notable improvement is the image sensor, whose 47-megapixel resolution exceeds anything you might find, for example, in the M system. The Q2 uses this high resolution to simulate additional focal lengths by means of cropping – namely 35, 50, and now even 75 mm – though this obviously results in a corresponding decrease in resolution. Baptism by fire. To find out how photographers truly feel about the Leica Q2, we asked Peer Kugler to put the new camera through its paces. The Berlin-based photographer was an ideal choice for this task. For quite some time, the Q was his most frequent companion, though he has recently started to work primarily with the M10. For the purpose of this exercise, Kugler swapped his entire set of equipment for the Leica Q2. This ensured that he would not merely carry out a qualified field test, but dig deep into the intri-
cacies of the camera’s strengths and weaknesses. It also meant that the Q2 would be pushed beyond the limits of its comfort zone, given that Kugler specialises in night-time shots – in other words: low-light photography. This would inevitably prove a genuine challenge for the Q2’s new sensor, seeing as a high resolution necessitates smaller pixels – which, in turn, increases the risk of image noise at high ISO settings. Externally, the Q and the Q2 appear almost identical, particularly given that the lens and dimensions of the camera body have remained unchanged. However, as a seasoned Q photographer, Kugler detected the subtle details that set the Q2 apart from its predecessor. For example, he commented on the simpler operating concept of the Q2, whose rear panel features a smaller number of keys. He also pointed out another minor, but surprisingly practical improvement: “The Leica Q’s diopter dial had a tendency to lose its setting while stored inside the camera bag – it’s something that made me lose valuable time on more than one occasion. This has now been remedied on the Q2.”. A question of resolut i o n. When it came to the
Q2’s greatly increased resolution, Kugler had some initial reservations. Many medium-format photographers will relish the idea of a compact camera whose image quality is almost on par with their hefty, medium-format camera. However, the fact remains that smaller sensor →
Photos: Peer Kugler; product photos: Leica Camera AG
Photographed with the Leica Q2 at a focal length of 28 mm, aperture f/2.8, 1/40s and ISO 1600
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b e s t o f L F I . Ga l l e r y
F ULL S TE A M A HE A D ! “I was in the oldest hat store in New York looking to get myself a Stetson, when I saw a salesperson right in front of me, cleaning a panama hat with steam. As I had my M Monochrom with me, I asked if I could take a picture. With the third take I had it in the bag.� Federico Quintana Leica M Monochrom with Summicron-M 35 f/2 Asph
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A L I EN B R A I NWA S H “There is a playground with lots of devices located on the rooftop of the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design in Japan. When seeing the image, my first association was with the film War of the Worlds, where extraterrestrials with long tentacles try to take over the world.� Hagen Wolf Leica Q, Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph
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