Leica SL3-S with Leitz ELSIE 15mm

 

A DP walks into a museum. What could possibly go wrong?

The DP is trying out the new Leica SL3-S camera and new Leitz ELSIE 15mm prime cine lens.

In fact, nothing goes wrong.

After taking still and moving images of Southampton’s wintry windswept beaches, what better place to illustrate the prowess of the wonderfully wide angle 15mm ELSIE than the large and high-ceilinged indoor space of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill?

The DP stumbles upon an interesting exhibit: Ralph Gibson—Nature : Object. He films and photographs the photographs, testing 6K Open Gate SL3-S and ELSIE’s angles of view.

And then, a happy accident. In the corner of the room, a placard explains that the exhibit is made possible by Leica Camera USA.

Ralph Gibson has been working with Leica cameras for more than 60 years. His first Leica was an M2. He now has an M11. In 2021, he was honored in the Leica Hall of Fame lifetime achievement award.

Born in Hollywood, his father worked at Warner Bros and was an Assistant Director for Alfred Hitchcock. He learned photography in the US Navy and attended the San Francisco Art Institute. In a Musée Magazine interview (Issue No. 4.), Gibson said,  “The Navy gave me an extremely strong technical background. There, it was all about resolution and sharpness and grey scale.”

He worked for Dorothea Lange. “Being with her in the dark room all day, I learned a tremendous amount about content. I wanted to be a photojournalist and that’s what I did…I bought a trench coat and came to NY. But it was not for me. I didn’t like somebody telling me what to photograph.”

Working on films with Robert Frank impressed the importance of having his own theme. Gibson pawned two Leica cameras to pay the rent and publish his first book, Somnambulist, in 1970.

The Parrish Art Museum describes how the current exhibition, RALPH GIBSON—NATURE : OBJECT “posits that nature’s structures and patterns are reflected throughout industrial design… comprising a series of diptychs that pair views of landscapes, plant life, and the human figure alongside their formal counterparts in the built and manufactured environment.

“Foreground and background appear to collapse in these tightly composed photographs; a visual compression produced in part by Gibson’s Leica rangefinder camera and the 135mm lens. He has used these tools exclusively throughout his career, favoring the frame’s format for its relationship to the golden mean, an ancient Greek philosophy of balance and proportion. Gibson heightens these harmonic principles by presenting black-and­ white images alongside color. ‘What one sees in the photograph is not necessarily in the photograph,’ he explains.’”

Thanks to Leica Camera and Leica Gallery New York, Robert Tirrell, Mike Giannattasio, Nathan Kellum-Pathe, Parrish Art Museum, Melanie Tolan. 

Holding Still and Moving

Leica SL3-S 6K Open Gate with Leitz ELSIE 15mm

Here are additional wintry frames with the Leica SL3-S in 6K Full Frame, Full Height, Open Gate mode, opened wide with Leitz ELSIE 15mm T 2.1. This spherical lens feels almost anamorphic, capturing wide vistas with minimal distortion. This is the lens you’d want for epic vistas, David Lean scenes, close and wide action shots, or Birdman style portraits.

All photos and framegrabs by Jon Fauer, ASC

 

 

 

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