The first "candid" photographer
The person who is generally credited with being the first available light
"candid" photographer is Dr. Erich Solomon who photographed the social elite in
Berlin, Germany,and politicians and diplomats during the late 1920's and early
1930's with a 1 3/4 x 2 1/4 glass plate or cut, sheet, film camera called the
Ermanox, fitted with an f/1.8 Ernostar lens. The Ermanox was introduced by the
Ernemann-Werke (Works) of Dresden, Germany, in 1924.
It was said that "There are just three things necessary for a League of Nations
conference: a few Foreign Secretaries, a table and Salomon". On seeing
Salomon's photographs, so utterly different in revelation from the traditional,
posed, studio portraits or the formal, flash-powder illuminated, group photos,
an English editor called them "candid photographs", a phrase which stuck with
the public.
Ironically, the camera most suited to Salomon's approach, and which came to be
dubbed as the "candid camera", was the Leica, the camera designed by Oscar
Barnack and introduced by the Ernst Leitz company in 1924 and which was the
forerunner of all 35mm cameras of today.
excerpted by ADavidhazy from the book The History of Photography, by Beaumont
Newhall, Director of the George Eastman House, 1964.
