Quote:
Originally Posted by thrid
The fellow chatting with Capa is George Rodger; a famous British war photographer and one of the co-founders of the Magnum agency. This picture was taken somewhere in France, I believe before the liberation of Paris.
Rodger was an extraordinarily brave and talented man, but was severely traumatized by his experiences during the war. When it was all done he swore that he would never cover a conflict again. Instead he documented the vanishing cultures of Africa, as they fell pray to the changing times.
George Rodger |
I am glad to have this identification. Rodger's work on vanishing cultures in Sudan - I have a reprint of his book on the Nuba - inspired Leni Reifenstahl to her greatest late work, the books Last of the Nuba and The People of Kau. She describes her equipment in the later - M3, M5, SL MOT, many lenses, &c. Both her books and the Rodger book are certainly very worth getting if one can find copies. And the vanishing culture in question now actually has vanished - they exist today mostly only in these books.
Use of Leicas by US troops during WWII was not rare - even at the general rank, as the Patten example indicates - however they may have come by them. During the Korean war, US military PXes worldwide sold Leicas - for which there was always a waiting list or sale by lottery, like some hunting licenses now in some states.
I renew my suggestion that the list leaders organize a Restore Patten's Leica project - to which we all might contribute. We might set up an ongoing program for the identification and restoration of historic Leicas in general, wherever they might be found. Where's Georgia O'Keefe's Leica today, e.g.?