Following our discussion of the Leica Correspondent, a.k.a. the Leikravitz, I got the following lovely photo and note from Misha Erwitt, reproduced here with permission:
Hello Mike,
This is something like what Lenny Kravitz must have seen when being photographed by the late great wildman Jim Marshall, though Jim was more likely using an M4.
The M3 pictured here is my favorite camera given to me (after intensive lobbying on my part) by my father after it sat unused in a drawer in his equipment closet for a few years. He bought it from Kryn Taconis's widow at the Magnum office in New York. She appeared there one day with four of Kryn's well used cameras in the hope that some Magnum photographers would buy them and continue to use them. Unfortunately there were no photographers present and all the cameras were in the process of being sold to the head of the library. Before the deal was concluded my dad showed up and snagged the most well-used of the bunch.
I've had to replace many things in order to keep it functional (many thanks to the incredible Sherry Krauter) and I still use it on occasion today. This is one of the cameras Kryn used during his coverage of the French Algerian war in 1957. This is the "look" I think Kravitz and Leica were going for.
(Misha's Dad is Elliott.) I also have to report that I was sitting with S. in the Acura dealership yesterday waiting for my car to be serviced, and casually picked up a section of USA Today, and my eye fell on an article blurb that said something like "We review a new camera from Leica and Lenny Kravitz." I need to admit that the product upon which we enthusiasts heaped scorn is indeed, manifestly, generating buzz. So then whadda I know?
...Except that seeing Misha's still-usable relic of Kryn Taconis's is worth the whole episode.
Mike
(Thanks to Misha)
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