Kryn's Camera

Following our discussion of the Leica Correspondent, a.k.a. the Leikravitz, I got the following lovely photo and note from Misha Erwitt, reproduced here with permission:

Hello Mike,

This is something like what Lenny Kravitz must have seen when being photographed by the late great wildman Jim Marshall, though Jim was more likely using an M4.

The M3 pictured here is my favorite camera given to me (after intensive lobbying on my part) by my father after it sat unused in a drawer in his equipment closet for a few years. He bought it from Kryn Taconis's widow at the Magnum office in New York. She appeared there one day with four of Kryn's well-used cameras in the hope that some Magnum photographers would buy them and continue to use them. Unfortunately there were no photographers present and all the cameras were in the process of being sold to the head of the library. Before the deal was concluded my dad showed up and snagged the most well-used of the bunch.

I've had to replace many things in order to keep it functional (many thanks to the incredible Sherry Krauter) and I still use it on occasion today. This is one of the cameras Kryn used during his coverage of the French Algerian war in 1957. This is the "look" I think Kravitz and Leica were going for.

(Misha's dad is Magnum photographer Elliott.)

I also have to report that I was sitting with S. in the Acura dealership yesterday waiting for my car to be serviced, and casually picked up a section of USA Today, and my eye fell on an article blurb that said something like "We review a new camera from Leica and Lenny Kravitz." I need to admit that the product upon which we enthusiasts heaped scorn is indeed, manifestly, generating buzz. So then whadda I know?

...Except that seeing Misha's still-usable relic of Kryn Taconis's is worth the whole episode.

Mike
(Thanks to Misha)

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mani Sitaraman: "As the sappy old song says, 'Ain't nothin like the real thing....'"

Steve P.: "What a wonderful note to end on. Proof positive that there's nothing better than the real thing, be it a well-used camera or a life well lived. Can't fake that."

Bob Baillargeon, Ottawa Canada: "Kryn was one of my photography teachers long ago in the early 1970s at Conestoga College in Kitchener Ontario Canada. Kryn always carried his Leicas and taught the art of existing light photography using black-and-white film. He was a kind gent but fair and critical of the shoots we were assigned as his young protégées. Kryn's work is now part of the National Archives here in Ottawa Canada. Kryn also worked for the Dutch underground during WWII documenting life in Holland at that time. He was a great influence in my career and the way that I still use existing light. He was one of Magnum's great photographers. Thanks for publishing this story about him. It's been forwarded to many of my classmates from 40 years ago who were under Kryn's tutelage."

Benjamin Marks: "Nice...I always wanted to have taken enough pictures myself to have a camera like that. Heh. Not there yet. And Sherry? She's my kind of people. A great lady. She has been my go-to Leica specialist for my gear for years."

Trecento: "That's beautiful. Darnit, now I want one."

Michel: "You are a lucky man Mike Johnston to receive this kind of correspondence. What a neat story."

Manuel: "So, are people trying to invent a past by buying the 'Leikravitz?' I didn't want to enter this whole 'Correspondent' controversy because Mike issued a ban on bashing recently, but I believe only a fool—a very rich one, with lots of money and very little sense—will buy this camera. I mean, is he/she trying to fool anyone into thinking he/she's a seasoned photographer—or, even worse, is he/she buying it out of mere frivolity, like people who buy pre-washed jeans? In either case it's absurd. This camera just doesn't make any sense.

"On a more positive note, I'm quite impressed by the work of Misha Erwitt—which, unlike his father's, was unknown to me. Getting acquainted with the work of the most relevant photographers is one of the reasons I come here on a regular basis. Thanks, Mike!"

Doug Wicken: "I was a student of Kryn Taconis for three years at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. I well remember those M3's, which accompanied him everywhere. I recall the very day when I purchased my first Leica, a Canadian-made M4. I visited Kryn at his house in Toronto to show off my new acquisition. He went upstairs and returned with a bubble-wrapped package. Inside was a battered, worn-to-the-brass 13.5 cm lens. He installed it on my new M4 and told me to take a few pictures. He later informed me that the lens once belonged to his friend Robert Capa, and that he acquired it after Capa’s death when his belongings were being distributed among the Magnum members. This is a story I can never forget. It’s great to see his M3 again."

Comments

[Yonatan Katznelson]

I have long believed that there is a conservation law for intelligence (a theoretical maximum in the world, independent of population size). Perhaps the same is true of good taste. If so and if disposable income is distributed randomly enough, then it stands to reason that there are enough customers in the world to justify the creation and marketing of Leikravitzes, Peter Lik prints and anything else discerning folk might find questionable.

:)

[Richard Alan Fox]

Are you sure that is not gold under the black paint?

[Godfrey]

And a lovely old thing it is.

I think that maybe the Kravitz special is paying homage to it, rather than mocking it. But then I tend to see the world as a glass half full ...

[scott kirkpatrick]

I'm still using an M2 and that same lovely flaring collapsible 50, also thanks to Sherry Krauter. My M2 started life silver and still is. It spent some time underwater before i bought it in the 1970s, but Sherry fixed that when I finally had to face up to a balky shutter years later.

scott

[sneye]

I can envision the type of photographs made by an old camera by just looking at it. Doesn't work with newer stuff though. Here's to good old stereotypes.

[Bernard Scharp]

Not as pretty as the black paint brassing, but this is one of my M3s.

Comparing the two, it's interesting how much tougher the chrome is than the black paint. The only place where it gets worn is where the photog's hands repeatedly touch it (body acidity may have something to do with it as well).

(Honesty forces me to mention that I'm too young to have done all that myself. I bought it second-hand, but I've certainly added to it by now)

[Peter F]

I agree that the pre-brassed Leica is absurd, if not insulting. But it might also say something interesting about the conflict between the desire for, as Mike says, things that can wear beautifully, and the eye-blink obsolescence of most all digital products. I imagine you'd have to use your Leica M-P pretty hard to get it as brassed as this during its normal service life. Maybe this is partly Leica's (typically expensive) solution to that "problem."

[Speed]

Mike wrote, "I need to admit that the product upon which we enthusiasts heaped scorn is indeed, manifestly, generating buzz."

Mission Accomplished.

[Robert Newcomb]

Today's digital cameras have such a short lifespan, including the mighty Leica. that they don't last long enough to gain the proud patina of use and age. Leica struggles with the electronics and sensor problems and repair parts. Within a few years the cameras seem to have problems that are no longer able to be repaired. So the life long Leica camera/friend with the brassing and a long history is not likely to happen anymore.
I really like Leicas but those days are gone.

[Michael Perini]

Mike,
If I flew in as a surprise for your birthday, I'd expect more than a day at the Accura dealership.......
I'm just sayin'.....
All the best
Michael

I was planning that for the big 6-Oooh, I'm scrapping it now ; -))

[AHC McDonald (The Lazy Aussie)]

So USA Today weren't scorning it Mike? there's buzz and there's buzz.

[Bill Tyler]

I've been trying to figure out why, apart from phoniness, the Leikravitz just doesn't appeal, even visually, like Kryn's camera does. Then I looked at the two side-by-side. Kryn's camera is worn all over. Every place his fingers touched shows wear, and the dents, though not huge, are a part of the overall look. The Leikravitz is worn in places, and pristine in others. It screams newness from every spot that hasn't been purposely hand-scraped. To fake the look of Kryn's camera, you'd need to carry it with you for 20 or 30 years, let it bang against other cameras you're carrying, and make a ton of photos. But having done all that, it wouldn't be a fake.

[Andy Sheppard (carefully capitalised!)]

It's funny - Leica selling something for a fortune that a large portion of the world would have absolutely no interest in because it doesn't look like it was made by Apple... personally, yes please, I'd be happy with ANY kind of Leica (wish I could afford it), but the pre-brassed take is a whole different aesthetic to the raft of 'innovations' my 16 year old son tried to show me yesterday, any one of which could have come straight from Jobs' drawing board. Generally, if anyone makes something that isn't smooth, white/chrome/black and touchscreen, then I say bravo and good luck to them, but I agree with your general sentiments on this particular one, though. Apparently it has to be i-generation, or definitely look pre-i-generation, even if it isn't... but it must be new... fake is the new real indeed. We definitely live in 'interesting times'.

[Jeff Macmillan]

Re: the Kravitz Leica: as a longtime Leica user, I am appalled by them, but I am equally offended by the obscene amounts of money people ( men usually) spend on cars, watches and the like. A Timex will tell time as well as a Rollex, yet I rarely hear moaners go on about that. Don't get me started on MBenzes, über cars and the like.
As a soccer fanatic, I don't think buying an overpriced jersey will allow me on the pitch. Instead I know it is paying for the obscene salaries players( entertainers) make. If my little jersey purchase helps Arsenal buy a defensive midfielder then it's money well spent! Likewise I hold my nose and hope Leica is in business next yr this time. Hopefully the distressed cameras will help. But I will not be buying one even if I won the super lottery.

Erwitt camera is crazy beautiful and thanks for the photographers name. Wasn't familiar w his work. Looks wonderful.

[Kent Whiting]

next up
a Mercedes Benz direct from the factory with dents and bullet holes added for an extra $10000

[Jake]

I read somewhere that Gary Winogrand's M-4 not only had the paint worn away but even some of the actual brass had been eroded by constant use. Talk about a compulsive shooter; he died leaving more than 2,000 rolls of exposed but undeveloped film.

[peter wijninga]

Kryn Taconis's departure from Magnum was painful and preceded by Magnum's controversial refusal to publish his work on the war in Algeria -he had joined an FLN unit to document the war from their point of view. The full story here: "Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History: The Story of the Legendary Photo Agency" Paperback – October, 1999 by Russell Miller