Leica: the camera that freed the world – in pictures

Adored by everyone from Henri-Cartier Bresson to Sebastião Salgado, the Leica compact revolutionised photography – taking it out of the studio and onto the streets. The exhibition Eyes Wide Open! celebrates 100 years of pivotal moments

Main image: Eyes Wide Open: 100 Years of Leica Place Blanche, Paris 1961 Photograph: Christer Strömholm / Strömholm Estate

  • The Ur-Leica

    The original Leica prototype of 1914 is considered as revolutionary a technological development as the advent of the mobile phone. Compact and lightweight – a mere 400g – and using 35mm cinematic film, it was small enough to fit into a coat pocket, and rapidly became essential not only to professional photographers but also amateurs, thereby bringing photography into everyday life. A celebratory exhibition, Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of the Leica, is being held at Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, until 10 October
    The original or Ur-Leica is considered as revolutionary a technological development as the advent of the mobile phone. Compact and lightweight – a mere 400g – and using 35mm cinematic film, , it was small enough to fit into a coat pocket, and rapidly became essential not only to professional photographers but also amateurs, thereby bringing photography into everyday life.

  • Eisenmarkt, Wetzlar, Germany, 1913, by Oskar Barnack

    The camera was designed and constructed by Oskar Barnack, an engineer and head of development at the Ernst Leitz optical company, a microscope manufacturer in Wetzlar, Germany, between 1912 and 1914
    Eisenmarkt, Wetzlar, 1913

  • Inundacion en Wetzlar, Germany, 1920, by Oskar Barnack

    The onset of the first world war caused commercial production of the camera to stall until 1924. Dubbed Leica – from Leitz and camera – it was eventually marketed in 1925 under the slogan: “Small negatives, big pictures”
    Oskar Barnack, Inundacion en Wetzlar, 1920

  • Robert Capa’s Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, Córdoba front, 1936

    Capa’s influential image from the Spanish civil war is now seen as a definitive moment in war reporting, although some believe it was staged
    Death of a Loyalist militiaman, Córdoba front, 1936

  • Series for Nino, Hamburg, 1958, by FC Gundlach

    Born in 1926, German photographer FC Gundlach thrived on this new contraption – his shoot for fashion label Nino on a rainy day in Hamburg demonstrates the freedom the new photographic tool gave artists
    Reportage para Nino, Hamburg, St. Pauli 1958

  • Series for Nino, Hamburg, 1958, by FC Gundlach

    With the advent of prêt-à-porter collections, fashion photography shifted from copying couturiers to conveying mood and atmosphere. As opposed to the studio sets and cumbersome plate cameras that preceded this style of photography, the Leica offered unencumbered, dynamic action shots in unexpected locations
    FC Gundlach, Reportage for Nino, Hamburg, 1958 With the advent of prêt-à-porter, fashion photography shifted from copying couturiers to conveying mood and atmosphere. The size and portability of the Leica offered unencumbered, dynamic photographing in unexpected locations.

  • Nana, Place Blanche, Paris, 1961, by Christer Strömholm

    Swedish photographer Strömholm was based in Paris from the 1950s. “Every night I would gather my pipe, my old Leica, some rolls of Tri-X film, and my poor French language skills, and go to the brasserie at the Place Blanche,” he said. “Everybody knew what I was about. I never photographed in secret. I worked without a flash, and instead focused on utilising the available, often neon, light”
    Nana, Place Blanche, Paris 1961

  • Fred Herzog’s Main Barber, 1968

    From photojournalism – made possible by the camera’s ability to take one picture straight after another at speed – to the new colour photography of the 1960s, the Leica has proved essential at pivotal moments throughout the past century
    Main barber, 1968

  • Man with Bandage, 1968, by Fred Herzog

    Herzog is now considered a pioneer of artistic colour photography. Born in Germany but Canadian by choice, he photographed his adopted homeland on the fly from the1950s. He was a classic flâneur, preferring to let the right moment come naturally
    Man with bandage, 1968

  • François Fontaine’s To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955)

    The Leica has continued to be a sought-after tool for contemporary artists. In an experimental series on how we see and remember pictures, the French photographer François Fontaine projected classic movies by Terrence Malick, Alfred Hitchcock, Victor Fleming and others, and took deliberately blurry stills of key moments
    François Fontaine, Silenzio!, Mémoires de cinéma, 2012 (from To Catch a Thief, Alfred Hitchcock, 1955) The Leica has continued to be a sought-after tool for contemporary image makers. In an experimental series on how we see and remember pictures, the French photographer François Fontaine projected classic movies by Terence Malick, Alfred Hitchcock, Victor Fleming,and Jean-Luc Godard, and took deliberately blurry stills of key moments.

  • François Fontaine’s Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

    Another of Fontaine’s blurred movie scenes, of Brigitte Bardot in Le Mépris by Jean-Luc Godard, the French new wave director who ushered in a revolution in movie-making
    François Fontaine, Silenzio!, Mémoires de cinéma, 2012 (from Le Mépris, Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

  • Untitled, 2014, by Julia Baier

    Born in Augsburg in 1971, Julia Baier is part of the ambitious new generation of photographers. Her interest lies not in documenting daily life or world events but in exploring the medium itself.
    Julia Baier, Untitled, 2014Born in Augsburg in 1971, Julia Baier is part of the ambitious new generation of Leica photographers. Her interest lies not in documenting daily life or world events but in exploring the medium itself.

  • Untitled, 2014, by Julia Baier

    Through large-format, abstracted imagery, such as this shot of a simple courtyard in Berlin, Baier confronts the viewer with the painterly, formal possibilities photography can still offer. Eyes Wide Open! is part of the PhotoEspaña 2017 summer festival
    Julia Baier, Untitled, 2014 Through large format, abstracted imagery, such as this shot of a simple courtyard in Berlin, she confronts the viewer with the painterly, formal possibilities photography can still offer.
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