There are few brands that have been truly decisive in the history of photography, and one of them is undoubtedly Leica, a legendary firm that remains at the top despite the years and technological changes. Its history dates back to 1869, although it was in 1913 when Oskar Barnack, one of his engineers, came up with the idea for the Ur-Leica, a camera that would mark the history of the company and with whose first prototype he made this photo:
The picture was taken in 1914, at Eisenmarkt from the center of Wetzlar (in Germany, where the firm originated and continues to have its headquarters), from a side street in one of the most popular areas of the city. As they say in Kosmofoto, with it he immortalized an everyday scene in Germany at the beginning of the century, before a multitude of events took place, including two world wars. Precisely from the bombings of the Second World War the characteristic building survived that you see in the center of the image.
This is evidenced by the image below where the building can be seen today (it can also be seen on Google Maps) and where the commemorative plaque (on a manhole cover) can also be seen that mark the exact place where Barnack took the photo. That was the first of many shots that he took with the prototypes that he developed during those years, and that would lead as early as 1925 (after the First World War) to the first commercialized Leica cameras.
It is therefore an image that, being apparently everyday, supposes the beginning of a long trajectory that, as we said, marked the world of photography. Because Leica cameras were fundamental to the development of photojournalism, especially because of their portability.
With them iconic photos were taken as the ‘Death of the militiaman’, of Robert Capa, ‘Behind St. Lazare Station’, by Henri Cartier-Bresson, ‘VJ Day in Times Square’, by Alfred Eisenstaedt, or ‘Heroic Guerrilla‘, the famous portrait of Che Guevara from Alberto Korda.
Via | DPReview
Cover photo | Ur-Leica 3D model created for Photokina 2012 by Bitflare