http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1206.html

-- martin tai (martntai@accessv.com), February 23, 2002

Answers

How Alfred Eisenstadt discovered Leica

Excerpt from "the eye of eisenstadt" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Leicafile/message/62

-- martin tai (martntai@accessv.com), February 23, 2002.

Back cover of "the eye of eisenstadt"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Leicafile/files/Historic/eisie.jpg

-- martin tai (martntai@accessv.com), February 23, 2002.

Martin:

Since not all of are (or want ot be) members of the Leicafile group, it would be nice if you just cut and posted the relevant sections of the article in question.

Thanks!

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), February 23, 2002.

"Everybody" loved Eisie. But I always wondered if he was one of the truly great photographers, or just a really competent worker (like so many of us) with a great personality, who shot a lot and occasionally got lucky. HC-B, Gene Smith, Edward Weston, for example, left dozens and dozens of great and memorable photographs, but I can only think of two with Eisie: The Nurse and the Sailor, and The Kids Following the Drum Major. I'm not trying to put him down here, as I love and respect him, but I think that it's fair to ask, Is/was He Overrated?

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), February 23, 2002.

Those who are swayed by the deluding passions, are bound to the duality of opposites, and chained to comparison and criticisum forever.

-- Glenn Travis (leicaddict@hotmail.com), February 23, 2002.

Somewhere I've got one of his books, I think it's _Witness to our Time_ or something like that. Lot's of very nice work, and isn't he the one who took that fantastic portrait of Herman Goring [sp?] with other Nazi leaders? Remember, when we look back in history we use our modern eyes. A photographer who worked in the 1930's may be more of an innovator than we realize. His vision was very progressive and innovative for his era. I wouldn't rate someone by a few signature shots. He might not be in my own top ten...but he's in the top 100. (I'm actually a little embarrassed to get into a rating game. It's art, not horse racing.)

-- Phil Stiles (stiles@metrocast.net), February 23, 2002.

Lazy me. I should have cut and pasted the URL first. It was Goebbels! I might further say that Eisenstadt was a photojournalist, and didn't present himself as a fine artist. I love his quote, "90% of photography is moving furniture." Combine that with Woody Allen's "90% of life is just showing up." and you have the basis for a career in photojournalism. (Which isn't too far from "f/8 and be there.")

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), February 23, 2002.

Bill - I almost agree but would certainly add the 'Girl at the Opera'.Eisie was fortunately able to get close to the famous musicians of the period and was almost alone. He had one major advantage - he was small and unobtrusive - a really quiet photographer who only used cameras with quiet shutters.

-- ferdinand (gdz00@lineone.net), February 23, 2002.

I'll add to the above post Bill Clinton's "80% of life is just hanging on."

-- Luke Dunlap (luked@mail.utexas.edu), February 23, 2002.

from an editor's POV the great Eisenstadt shot was of the bare cracked feet -below military puttees- of an Ethiopian soldier. It showed exactly what sort of army the italian fascists were mowing down with their tanks and planes, stark, simple, graphically powerful and a perfect storyteller. When you judge Esie remember that he was not trying to make gallery photos, or even, mostly, photos meant to stand alone. As a photojournalist he is unquestionably in the first rank.........

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), February 23, 2002.

And Eisenstadt set the absolute standard against which all Leica collectors should be judged, just before they are stood up against the wall and offered blindfolds and last cigarettes. When he was honored with the millionth Leica, it went into his bag as a user!...........

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), February 23, 2002.

Sure Alfred may have just been a competent photographer that was lucky enought to get the right breaks in the industry at that time. Would he be able to do the same thing today? I think possibly, and possibly not. But he still took some bloudy good pics that are memorable and remain in history as icons. Nothing can replace that now- especially our petty thoughts. It's nice that someone like him used Leica though isn't it?!

-- Kristian (leicashot@hotmail.com), February 23, 2002.

I was inspired to go back and dig out my "Eye of Eisenstadt." It's a great book, and he was a terrific guy!

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), February 23, 2002.

One of my favorite parts of that book is when he tells of forgetting to put film in the camera when shooting one assignment. He shot the whole roll before realizing the mistake. Everyone knows how that goes!

-- chris a williams (LeicaChris@worldnet.att.net), February 23, 2002.

Bill: In "Eisenstadt on Eisenstadt, he named the same two pictures you named, as the ones he'd like to be remembered for.

I might add to the list, his shots of Albert Einstein working with J. Robert Oppenheimer, and of Einstein lecturing to a class of physicists at Princeton. The latter saw its first publication in this book.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), February 24, 2002.

2 Cents:

Artist( or Artiste!) or solid craftsman- who cares. Life is not a contest.

For amost 80 years he was at the forefront of the world's events, a maker of memorable images month after month after month after decade after decade and was a great guy to boot- no inflated ego there.

He used the best tools available: Leicas and/or Nikons. Trying to rate someone on an arbitrary subjective scale is silly, just as asking was he good or lucky. The obvious answer is- both.

I have seen dozens of pictures of him and in all, he was smiling! No fits of childish pique at having his mug shot & shown.

Eise, HCB, S.S. - we would be poorer at the absence of any.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002.

I briefly met "Eisie" a few years before he died.I was priviledged to snap his portrait with a great South African photographer,Peter Magubane.I asked "E" about the special edition Leica.He said he simply dropped it into his bag and used it!I agree about the Leica collectors.I beleive there is a site where you can register to get rid of them,CIA-way,with extreme perdjudice!It might wake up the folks at Solms!I used my M3,the 50 and a 90mm to do his portrait.Available light as he said the flashes bothered him.No problem,I did'nt own a flash!He was a great photographer,journalist 1st,photographer in his private time also.I thought he was a gentle kind fellow,but you do need stamina,drive and ambition to get the photos he did...

-- jason gold (leeu72@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

I recommend the latest issue of Lenswork, it has two short stories that I liked, one about Eisie and one about Arnold Newman. Both of them characters in the positive sence!

-- Peter Olsson (peter.olsson@lulebo.se), March 01, 2002.

I don't get it Martin. Is today Eisie's birthday? What occasioned the post and the link?

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), March 01, 2002.

I mean the obit is several years old...

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), March 01, 2002.

Mani In "Leica photographers" catogories, there was no thread about Alfred Eisenstaedt. Filling a blank

-- martin tai (martiin.tai@capcanada.com), March 01, 2002.