Leica Celebrates 100 Years of Photography

Christer Strömholm Nana, Place Blanche, Paris 1961 © Christer Strömholm Estate 2014.

In celebration of Leica’s rich 35mm film history, the German optics company organised an exhibition in Milan to showcase the photos of famous Leica photographers over the past century.

F.C. Gundlach, Reportage for Nino, Hamburg, St. Pauli 1958 © F.C. Gundlach

Entitled “Eyes wide open! 100 years of Leica photography”, the exhibition will focus on the revolutionary prototype camera ‘Ur-Leica’, as it was used as the basis for Leica’s later viewfinder cameras. Its compactness meant that the everyday world could be documented as early as the glamorous 1920s.

 

Jeff Mermelstein, Sidewalk, 1995 © Jeff Mermelstein.

There will be 400 works on display, all taken on 35mm Leica cameras throughout history by renown photographers such as René Burri, Thomas Hoepker, Bruce Gilden and many more.

Ur-Leica, built by Oskar Barnack, completed in 1914 © Leica Camera AG

The exhibition will be in the Espacio Fundación Telefónica and can be seen on Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from May 11 to September 10, 2017.

In this Story: #culture / #art & design