[rollei_list] Re: speaking of war photography
- From: Peter J Nebergall <iusar4s@xxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:50:50 -0700
Funny how true...
My brief time on the lines, Leicaflex SLs and Novoflexes, K200. I heard
the US army had discouraged color photography for a time, while our
(Deutsch) visionary mag SIGNAL was pushing color imagery from the
start...
Peter Nebergall
On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:21:00 -0400 Marc James Small
<marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> At 01:00 AM 10/23/2007, dpurdy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >Did anyone else sit through all 14 or so hours of the recent Ken
> Burns
> >film on Public Broadcasting "War"? I think that was the title.
> Showing
> >WW2 through the eyes and memories of the common soldiers and
> their
> >families.
> >
> >The photography was amazing. As black and white real WW2 footage
> always
> >is. It is hard to imagine what the photographers were going
> through and
> >still producing that work. How they were able to get through the
> mud and
> >snow and water, crawling and running and hiding in holes. How do
> you keep
> >the mud or rain or ocean out of your camera to change film with
> bullets
> >flying everywhere?
> >
> >An amazing amount of movie footage as well in impossible
> circumstances.
> >Watching real WW2 stuff makes me fall in love with black and
> white
> >photography all over again. Almost makes me want a leica. But I
> will
> >stick with the more civilized Rollei.
>
> No, I didn't watch this, though I am an active
> WWII student. I watched two episodes of Burns'
> CIVIL WAR and one episode of his series on
> baseball, and had enough of Ken Burns to last me
> a lifetime. I just do not like his approach or
> his work. Others obviously love him and he is
> very successful. Taste is just a matter of
> taste, and there is no argument over it: my
> mother loved murder mysteries and suspense
> stories but disliked Alfred Hitchcock's work. Go figure.
>
> Several points:
>
> First, there is a huge archive of wartime
> photography, especially in the holdings of the
> British, USians, and Italians. Much of it really
> hasn't been watched since it was shot. Burns is
> to be commended for having gone through a lot of
> the holdings in the US Archives, though by his
> own admission, he barely scraped the surface of what is there.
>
> Second, we all know that color is for happy-snaps
> of the family and black & white is for art. <he
> grins> I am enough of a snob to use
> schwarz-weiss as my default choice. Besides,
> black & white is more fun to print.
>
> Third, all of the various Armies in the Second
> World War regularly took color footage. A lot of
> this has faded and is best shown today in black &
> white. The Germans tended to use Agfacolor,
> which has not held up well, while the Allies
> tended to use Kodachrome which is a lot more
> resistant to decay. I still have the shots made
> by my father of the unit he commanded, G/260th CA
> (AA), in Alaska in 1942 - 1943. (I recently
> offered to bring this to a unit reunion to show
> them, only to be reminded that the last veteran
> from that time had died in January of this year.)
>
> Fourth, I own a bunch of Rollei gear but I also
> own a bunch of Leica gear. I use both for both
> color and black & white work: in the end, most
> of my color work is probably done either with my
> M6 Wetzlar or with my Hasselblad SWC.
>
> I really admire combat photographers but have not
> the slightest desire to join their ranks!
>
> Marc
>
>
> msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
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