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! > > --- > Rollei List > > - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' > in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org > > - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with > 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into > www.freelists.org > > - Online, searchable archives are available at > //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list > > > --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list