By your leave,
I did catch a Walter Benser presentation in Cleveland sometime in the mid-1950s. He was at that time sponsored by Zeiss Ikon, and all slides were taken with Contax RF bodies and lenses, projected with whatever Zeiss offered at the time.
What impressed me most was that before the US tour was booked, Benser spoke no English. He learned enough in the several months before leaving Germany to do a creditable job of it, including answering audience questions.
Several years later, he hooked up with Leica, during which time he designed the Benser case for M and accessories. It was good for transporting gear, not so much for actually working out of it. IMHO, there wasn't a decent carryall until Domke came up with one in the late 60s. However, I'm sure a Benser would be a good collectable.
Allen Zak
On Oct 23, 2007, at 9:18 AM, Jan Decher wrote:
Marc:
In this context, a very entertaining read, highlighting one German war reporter's life:
Walther Benser: "My Life with the Leica" (1990 Hove Photo Books) with a nice gallery of Benser's pictures annotated by him.
After the war Benser worked for Leitz to promote their gear around the world incl. in the US with slide shows of his pictures using two Prado 500 projectors. He even drilled himself to give his talks in several languages without really knowing all of them. Did you ever see him?
Jan
From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: speaking of war photography
...
Several points:
First, there is a huge archive of wartime=20
photography, especially in the holdings of the=20
British, USians, and Italians. Much of it really=20
hasn't been watched since it was shot. Burns is=20
to be commended for having gone through a lot of=20
the holdings in the US Archives, though by his=20
own admission, he barely scraped the surface of what is there.
Second, we all know that color is for happy-snaps=20
of the family and black & white is for art. <he=20
grins> I am enough of a snob to use=20
schwarz-weiss as my default choice. Besides,=20
black & white is more fun to print.
Third, all of the various Armies in the Second=20
World War regularly took color footage. A lot of=20
this has faded and is best shown today in black &=20
white. The Germans tended to use Agfacolor,=20
which has not held up well, while the Allies=20
tended to use Kodachrome which is a lot more=20
resistant to decay. I still have the shots made=20
by my father of the unit he commanded, G/260th CA=20
(AA), in Alaska in 1942 - 1943. (I recently=20
offered to bring this to a unit reunion to show=20
them, only to be reminded that the last veteran=20
from that time had died in January of this year.)
Fourth, I own a bunch of Rollei gear but I also=20
own a bunch of Leica gear. I use both for both=20
color and black & white work: in the end, most=20
of my color work is probably done either with my=20
M6 Wetzlar or with my Hasselblad SWC.
I really admire combat photographers but have not=20
the slightest desire to join their ranks!
Marc
