Dad Had a Leica Camera
…he loved to take photographs…
I have written in the past about my father’s experience with photography. Recently I dusted off his classic Nikon F and loaded a roll of black and white film. Holding the camera he once held in his own hands felt comfortable and proper. Someday I’ll post about the photos I have taken with this Nikon and my memories of how it came to be. Meanwhile, the film experience brought some other thoughts to the surface. This blog has an article about Dad’s Leica camera which was his first professional-grade model. Here is the photo of that gem:
My curiosity about a 100-year-old photo and this legendary camera led me to search for more details and background information. When I couldn’t find a similar make and model I realized the photo shown above is reversed left-to-right. This is the corrected photo which I could then use to track down that Leica:
I suppose I could have caught the mistake by noticing the position of the buttons on his vest and topcoat (men’s clothing have buttons fastened using the man’s right hand). Why was the photograph reversed, I wondered? In those days the 35mm film would have been developed into negatives and then exposed to create a print. Our father did his own darkroom developing and enlarging so maybe the film was simply inserted backwards into his enlarger. Or, a print made at a later date reversed the negative. Anyway, I came to realize this reversal when viewing online images of the legendary Leica III.
The Leica III was state of the art in 1930 when our father, Robert L. Bredimus, took it on his road trip to South Dakota and later in that same year when he sailed to France. A recollection of this camera on the ship to France was shared with me by Bob Cameron, Dad’s life-long friend and fellow traveler. Cameron had a vivid memory of the camera swinging by its strap as their ship swayed in the Atlantic Ocean. If there are photos from the road trip, where are the more important photos of 1930’s Paris? This train of thought also has me questioning where the above print of Dad has been all these years. I could fill in many blanks in the Bredimus family history with more photographs. My suspicion is that someone is hoarding, We were all taught to share in Kindergarten, weren’t we? In any case, I’m likely to upset somebody if I press this point. Sometimes we don’t notice we’ve thrown a grenade until we see the pin in our hand.
More reading: A $15 Million Vintage Leica Shattered Estimates to Become the Most Expensive Camera Ever Sold.
