This month marks the 100th birthday of Leica, the iconic camera brand that changed the face of photography when Oskar Barnack introduced what was then called " the minature miracle". Finally, a small, portable camera that took quality images was invented and the need of heavy box cameras with bulky flash guns was eliminated. A new genre of photography called street photography cropped up and photographers who embraced the medium came up with the most memorable photographic images of the 20th century. Names like Brassai, Capa, Erwitt and Davidson are embraced and their work admired and studied because of the skill they manifested using their Leica cameras.
The company's innovation continues with their new digital cameras like the M and the Leica C. An appreciation of the Leica at 100 can be found in this article from the british newspaper The Guardian. And to see images taken with some Leica M's 50 years ago of a certain set of British youngsters called the Beatles when they first arrived in America, you can click here to see a slide show from the New York Times photo blog called "Lens" highlighting the work of Life Magazine photographer (and longtime CWS customer), the late Bill Eppridge which has been assembled into a new book which came out last week.
(Beatles At The Ed Sullivan Show Photo by Bill Eppridge-Leica Cupcake Photo Courtesy Of Leica USA)