EISENSTAEDT´S ´ KISS IN TIMES SQUARE ´ PRINT SOLD AT WESTLICHT FOR 24,000 EUROS: PONDERINGS ON A GREATLY CONFIRMED TREND

SPANISH
Last May 24, 2013 meant a remarkable success for the Westlicht 8th Photo Auction, one of whose highlights was undoubtedly the 24,000 euros fetched by a 17,5 " x 12 " (44,5 x 30,5 cm) print of Alfred Eisenstaedt´s worldwide famous

Print of the acclaimed picture made by Alfred Eisenstedt sold at Westlicht. This great image is one of the most important icons in the History of Photojournalism.

´ V-J Day Kiss ´ in Times Square, New York, taken on August 14, 1945, signed by the photographer in ink,

without forgetting the 66,000 euros paid for Irving Penn´s ´Woman in Chicken Hat´, the 15,600 euros reached by a photograph made by Ernst Haas in 1961 showing Elliott Erwitt holding a black painted Leica M3 and the 9,000 euros attained by a picture of Pablo Picasso wearing a clown mask made in 1957 by David Douglas Duncan.

Therefore, this event has meant among other significant sides the confirmation of a steadily increasing trend and great interest for classic photography, specially the black and white one, shared by both international and local collectors having a penchant for really top-notch pictures made by many of the most legendary Maestros of Photography ever, to such an extent that Westlicht Photo Auction is currently the international benchmark in terms of average results in the sphere of auction houses devoted to photography (to quote only an example, a 76% of the images were sold during the recent 8th Photo Auction, often getting bids and final hammer prices far beyond their starting price tags).

Westlicht Schauplatz für Fotografie logo at the entrance of the Gallery where auctions are held. 

But then, a question arises:

How is it possible this outstanding renaissance and passion for pictures which in a very high percentage were made made a lot of decades ago in the XX Century and taken with cameras using chemical films in different formats? Why are there nowadays so many people willing to pay so steep figures for these images on high quality photographic paper to such an extent that there are even usual moments of bidding war for the most coveted items?

REASONS FOR A CLEARLY UPWARD TENDENCY
There are a number of factors having brought about this craving for acquiring classic photographs made by famous photographers with chemical films, among which stand out:

a) The very significant value of those images, both from a historical and social viewpoint, since most of them are to great extent mankind heritage and often depict instants captured in the midst of events which marked turning points in the development of XX Century.

b) The outstanding quality of the images in terms of the highly representative moments depicted in the pictures, irrespective of the cameras and lenses with which they were got and the technicalities of them.

c) The magic of black and white. Most of these photographies were taken with b & w chemical emulsions featuring plenty of silver halides and delivering a very special vintage aesthetics of image on photographic paper, a real treat to watch and appreciate.

d) The impressive gift for their trade proved throughout their professional careers by the legendary photographers who made these pictures in a time when the great illustrated magazines like Life, Picture Post, Collier´s, Regards, Look, Ladies´ Home Journal, etc, paid very well the top-notch photographers to cover different areas of the globe and fulfill a lot of assignments, investing tons of wherewithal of their own to finance their worldwide trips under the best possible conditions, in order to subsequently fill the pages of their graphic publications with excellent pictures oozing impact, which skyrocketed both the sales in newstands and the advertisements of a number of important brands.

Back cover of Coca-Cola in the Life magazine number of January 17, 1938. The great company featuring the best distribution network in the world then and now, had the wisdom of following the advice of Henry Luce (Owner and Editor of Life), John Shaw Billings (Executive Editor and the key man when deciding which stories would be included), Daniel Longwell (Executive Editor and constantly producing brainstorms to fill the pages), Wilson Hicks (Executive Editor, a man deeply knowing the photographers and whose mission was to send them on assignments in which they could excel the most according to their working style and experience) and great picture editors like Edward K. Thompson from the first meetings held at the advertising offices of Life located at 135 East 42nd Street New York. It dawned on them all that the key factor for massive sales of the top-notch magazine was to hire very good photographers (who were very well paid) to make pictures stories all over the world, full of images oozing impact to steadily draw the buyers´ attraction and keep them as enthusiasts of Life both acquiring the legendary illustrated publication in newstands and through subscriptions. Needless to say that the labour of picture editors choosing the cream of the crop of the great images and the toil of the art departments making the layouts together with the photo editors was also seminal.  

         Portrait of Alfred Eisenstaed made by Claire Yaffa in 1978.

To quote only an example, Alfred Eisenstaedt, a photographic driving force in himself for seventy years between late twenties and mid nineties of XX Century, was instrumental in the development and tremendous success of Life magazine, from its very launching on November 23, 1936 with 380,000 copies sold, which would soon result in world record sales of one million copies a week from March 1937, an astronomical figure for the time.

V-J Day Kiss in Times Square is one of the most important icons in the History of Photography and has been a part of a number of exhibitions all over the world since the end of the Second World War. Here we can see the advertisement plate of the exhibition 75 Years of Life held at the New York Leica Gallery between November 11 and January 7 of 2012.

Eisentaedt published thousands of his pictures in it and made the amazing figure of 92 covers.

And the same happened with other great photographers who worked for Life magazine like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Werner Bischof, David Seymour ´Chim´, George Rodgers, Margaret Bourke-White, Eileeen Darby, Ernst Haas, Elliott Erwitt, Andreas Feininger, Bob Landry, Carl Mydans, Elliot Elisofon, Dmitri Kessel, Frank Scherschel, David Douglas Duncan, Gjon Mili, Gordon Parks, George Silk, Hansel Mieth, Larry Burrows, Ralph Morse, Peter Stackpole, Philippe Halsman, Cornell Capa, Thomas D. McAvoy, Walker Evans, William Vandivert and many others.

e) The continuous increase of resale value of the acquired prints, so they turn into coveted items of investment with high levels of reliability.

f) The blossoming emergence of China as a country highly interested in classical photography, with a lot of knowledgeable bidders coming from this nation. 

g) The increasing spreading of high-end LED fixtures which are beginning to enable collectors and investors alike to have inside their homes these valuable historical prints made from original negatives exposed by famous photographers, something greatly reserved till now to museums and galleries. These new state-of-the art contrivances are allowing enthusiasts of top-notch photography to have specific areas of their abodes devoted to display these masterpieces with the most adequate lighting without any risk of spoiling them. 

h) The handcrafted nature of the copies on sale at Westlicht, both vintage and later alike, which were born inside darkroom many years ago, often after a lot of hours and even days of strenuous efforts searching for the best possible prints, trying to interpret as faithfully as possible the reality of the photographic act when the picture was taken.

i) A great quantity of these photographs were selected by many of the best picture editors in history: Simon Guttman (Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung), Edward K. Thompson (Life), Stefan Lorant (Weekly Illustrated, Picture Post), Roy Striker (FSA Project, Lamp), Willard D. Morgan (Life, Look), John G. Morris (Life, Ladies´ Home Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, National Geographic), James A. Fox (Magnum), Howard Chapnick (Black Star Agency), Barbara Baker Burrows (Life), Marie Schumann (Life), Arnold H. Drapkin (Time), Robert Pledge (Zoom, Gamma, Contact Press Images) and others.

In those times, photographers were constantly asked to make picture stories, with a very important requisite: the photographs had to be great and with outstanding impact, because the goal was to sell as many magazines as possible.

Thus, the labour of the picture editors was an utterly key factor because they had to choose the best pictures to be published from the contacts, following the images narrative.

Beautiful advertisement plate of Agfa Isopan black and white 35 mm film from forties.

j) The unique appearance of the prints made from legendary black and white chemical emulsions like Eastman Kodak Nitrate Panchromatic Weston 32 bulk loaded motion picture stock from thirties, Kodak SS Panchro Nitrate Panchromatic Weston 32 from thirties, Kodak Super X Nitrate Panchromatic from thirties, Agfa Isopan F, 

Agfa Isopan F 35 mm black and white film from mid forties.

Kodak Plus-X, another classical black and white film which was launched into market in 1938 and was produced until 2011. It featured a sensitivity of 125 ASA and was extensively used by a number of Magnum photojournalist during forties, fifties and sixties of the XX Century like George Rodger (coverage of the London Blitz in 1940), Mark Riboud (pictures of Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1953), Erich Lessing (Budapest rebellion against Soviet occupation in 1956), Eve Arnold (photographs of Joan Crawford in 1959), Leonard Freed (October 1964 pictures of Martin Luther King in Baltimore acclaimed by thousands of people just returned from Europe after been awarded the Nobel Prize of Peace) and many others.

Kodak Plus X, Agfa Isopan ISS, Kodak Panatomic- X ISO 32 (1933-1987), Kodak Super XX, Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford HPS, Ilford HP3, Ilford FP3, Agfa L IR, Ansco Super Hypan, Ilford HP4, Ilford HP5, Fuji NP 400 PR, Agfa Isopan Ultra, Ilford Pan F50, etc.

Kodak Super-XX 35 mm film, the chemical black and white emulsion used by Alfred Eisenstaedt on August 14, 1945 in Times Square to get the famous picture of the V-J Day Kiss of the sailor and nurse in Times Square. It featured a sensitivity of 250 ASA and was the par excellence all around performer fast film used by photojournalists until the arrival of Kodak Tri-X 400.

On their turn, all of these black and white chemical films featured special different looks, and a remarkable versatilty of results could be obtained depending on the used developers (some of them optimized to deliver fine grain like the Kodak D-76 and Xtol) and others fostering the acutance, id est, the visual perception of sharpness, like the Agfa Rodinal.

Kodak Tri-X Pan 35 mm film. The 24 x 36 mm format photojournalistic most widely used in the History of Photography. A significant percentage of highly acclaimed pictures were made with this black and white chemical emulsion boasting superb acutance and tonal range, along with an unmatched versatility.

And there were great b & w classical films like the Kodak Tri-X 400 and the Kodak Plus-X, that though delivering some grain, offered outstanding acutance, tonal range and versatility in darkroom when making top quality prints in various sizes.

k) The prints of these master photographers were often made with very high quality professional enlargers like the Leitz Focomat VIWOO Varob Model 1934 (for 35 mm format), Leitz Valoy II (for 35 mm format), 

Leitz Valoy II, a gorgeous enlarger dedicated for 35 mm format. It was very covenient to use, featuring manual focus and a helical focus mount. It could use a number of top-notch enlarging lenses like the Leitz Elmar 5 cm f/3.5, Leitz Focotar 50 mm f/4.5, Leitz Summicron 50 mm f/2 with DMUOO adapter, EL Nikkor 50 mm f/2.8 (with 39 mm Leica thread mount extension tube placed between the lens and the enlarger) and others. Its use convenience was remarkable, also being easy to transport. It was extensively used by many  famous pros, among them Eugene Smith, and together with the Leitz Focomat 1C (also a great enlarger conceived for 35 mm format and used among others by Ralph Gibson) was very frequently the 35 mm enlarger chosen by many photographic agencies for their darkrooms throughout many decades during XX Century, being currently still used by great lovers of black and white photography shooting monochome films with their analog cameras.

Leitz Focomat IIC (for MF),

Leitz Focomat IIC enlarger, optimized for 6 x 9 cm medium format, though it is able to handle other sizes like 35 mm and 6 x 6 cm through the appropriate negative carriers. This is one of the best enlargers ever made. Its usual lenses were the Leitz Focotar 60 mm f/4.5 and the Leitz V Elmar 100 mm f/4.5. Produced between 1957 and 1983, it had a price tag comparable to a car during sixties. It was often part of the darkroom departments of the best publishing houses and photographic agencies in the world, delivering top-notch results stemming from its optical and mechanical quality manufactured without any compromises, to such an extent that vast majority of them are still in flawless working condition.

Beseler Model 23C (from 35 mm format to 2 1/4 x 2 1 /4 MF), 

Beseler Model 23C, specially designed for 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium medium format (though it can handle sizes from Minox 8 mm to 2 1/4 " x 3 1/4 "  a classic beloved by black and white photography enthusiasts. The outstanding mechanical quality of this enlarger, built like a tank, allowed a professional use for many decades, to such an extent that there´s currently a thriving second hand market with many of them in very good condition. Needless to say that in synergy with top-of-the-line classic enlarging MF lenses like the Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 80 mm f/4 it usually has featured for many decades since mid sixties of XX Century till now, the quality of the prints in a number of sizes on photographic papers that can be attained with it is simply superb.

Omega D2 (for 4 x 5 LF), 

Omega D2 4 x 5 " (10 x 12 cm) large format enlarger from mid fifties, a sturdy workhorse produced between 1954 and 1979 and belonging to a lineage started by the Omega D (1938-1941) and the Omega DII (1941-1954) which was the standard for LF enlargers since late thirties. Able to endure a lot of decades of daily hard professional use, it proved to be virtually indestructible, and in synergy with the Wollensak Raptar 135 mm f/4.5 Anastigmat and the Wollensak Raptar 162 mm f/4.5 Velostigmat lenses (the objectives it featured originally) and above all with the much better Schneider Componon-S 135 mm f/5.6, Schneider Componon-S 150 mm f/5.6, Nikkor EL 135 mm f/5.6 and Nikkor EL 150 mm f/5.6 became a highly widespread dependable device within the darkroom departments of the most important photographic agencies and illustrated magazines in the world, since though the 35 mm miniature format embodied by the very small mirrorless rangefinder Leica and Contax cameras meant a revolution and created a new kind of photojournalism much more agile and quick, the superb large format 4 x 5 cameras (contact print of 10 x 12 cm) like Graflex Super D and above all the Peacemaker Speed Graphic and Crown Graphic went on being used by many professional photographers (both in the photojournalistic and artistic sphere) pining for getting the best feasible results in terms of resolving power, contrast, tonal range and possibility of big enlargements and reframings without loss of quality, since the great surface of the negative (16 times the area of 24 x 36 mm format and much bigger than the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format) enabled the picture editors to modify the aspect ratio of the original images of the photo essays or even if necessary to be able to select very small zones of the LF negatives for their subsequent still top quality enlargement according to the layout of the magazines and its pages needs. In this regard, great photographers using the aforementioned LF cameras like Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Weegee, John Sexton, Nat Fein, and many others were specially relevant and consistently got very good pictures featuring amazing level of detail and getting covers of the most prominent illustrated magazines of the time. Besides, an Omega DII from late forties which belonged to the great Diane Arbus has been used by the  acclaimed portraiture photographer and printer Neil Serkirk (taking advantage of 6 x 6 cm carriers) to make superb copies from 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 negatives exposed by the great  American photographer from New York with Rolleiflex and Mamiya twin lens reflex medium format cameras.

Beseler 45 AF (for 4 x 5 LF), Beseler 45MX (for 4 x 5 LF), Beseler 45MXT (for 4 x 5 LF), Durst L 184 (for 8 x 10 LF), Saunders LPL 4500 II (for 4 x 5 LF), De Vere 504 (for 4 x 5 LF), Beseler 45MX (for 4 x 5 LF), Durst L 1200 (for 4 x 5 LF), Omega B22 (for 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 MF), Zone VI for 5 x 7 LF), Leica Focomat V35 (for 35 mm format) and others, with diffusion or contrast head, making a big difference in the prints and handling contrast very well. 

It all in seamless sinergy with gorgeous enlarging lenses like the Varob 5 cm f/3.5 (for 35 mm), Leitz 95 mm f/4 VOORT (for MF),  Schneider Componon-S 80 mm f/4 (for MF), Schneider Componon 100 mm f/5.6 (for MF), Focotar 50 mm f/4.5 (for 35 mm format), Summicron 50 mm f/2 M39 with Leitz DMUOO Summicron adapter (for 35 mm format), the Schneider Componon-S 50 mm f/2.8 (for 35 mm format) and others, which were to great extent the key factor to the final quality of the prints, along with the type of light sources enabling different looks.

l) The stunning chemical and physical features of the black and white classical emulsions like the Kodak Tri-X 400 and others containing high quantities of silver halides of not controlled shapes resembling clouds of asteroids.

When making copies on photographic papers from these b & w chemical emulsions which include a lot of silver, the grain is more visible than in technologically more advanced monochrome films like the Kodak T-Max 100, Fuji Acros 100, Kodak T-Max 400, Ilford Delta 100, Ilford Delta 400, etc, offering hexagonal shapes, tabular configuration, very flat crystals of silver salts, geometric uniformity and much less quantity of silver, in such a way that grain is less apparent on the copies made from them by means of enlargers, even with 400 ASA and 800 ASA films.

But the classical black and white films containing much higher quantities of silver and featuring not controlled and irregular shapes of grains, deliver much better tonal range and acutance, particularly if they´re developed with the most appropriate developers for it in synergy with top-notch enlargers and the best photographic papers matching their traits.

And besides, however amazing it may seem, the classical monochrome films featuring big quantities of silver together with unpredictable, greatly chaotic and not uniform shapes of grains like the Kodak Tri-X 400, Kodak Plus-X, Kodak Panatomic-X and others, are much more intimately linked (regarding their behaviour during the photographic act, the development of the exposed emulsions, the creation of contact prints and the making of positives in different sizes through enlargers) to the last boundaries of the current most advanced Physics Science, specifically to the scope of Werner Heisenberg´s Uncertainty Principle (as to the position and the momentum of the orbital of electrons in atoms) and Max Planck´s Quantum Theory (as to the revealing of the individual behaviours of the subatomic particles that make up all kinds of matter and the grasping of which molecules are energetically favourable to which others and the magnitudes of the involved energies) and Schrödingen Equation (with respect to the wavefunctions change in time and its application to the concept of free particle) and the extremely irregular character of classical chaos showing up when electrons scatter from small molecules, without forgetting that a lot of highly excited Rydberg atoms are generated inside the b & w chemical emulsions in the moment of the exposure, dwelling between the classical world and the quantum one whose link is the Quantum Chaos, presided over by the impossibility of knowing the position and speed of a subatomic particle.

Therefore, what happens inside the transparent gelatin of these classical black and white chemical emulsions when their silver grains sporting various sizes and irregular shapes are dispersed within it and suddenly the exposure takes place, is something stunning and of extreme complexity.

35 mm contact of Alfred Eisentaedt´s V-J Kiss Day famous photograph. Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt.

The great picture V-J Kiss in Times Square made by the extraordinary photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt that August 14, 1945 in Times Square, New York, is a very good example of the final product attained after the formation of the latent image at the moment of the exposure.

That´s to say, an invisible image was born inside Eisenstaedt´s Leica IIIa rangefinder 35 mm camera when the Kodak Super-XX 250 ASA black and white 24 x 36 mm film inside it, featuring high quantities of silver, was exposed on pressing the shutter release button, the light incided on the monochrome chemical emulsion and an invisible image of the kiss between the sailor and the nurse (the latent image, only made of silver) was created and impressed on it, subsequently being made visible through the development with Kodak D-76 (for twenty minutes) a few hours later that day sixty-eight years ago, and after it, the 35 mm contacts prints were created to make the picture editing (Eisenstaedt made five pictures of the sailor and the nurse, of which the best one was chosen).

m) The loyalty to first-class chemical black and white photography kept by its connoisseurs all over the world. Regarding Westlicht, the devotees of the pictures made by Masters of Photography have unremittingly been spellbound for years, 

paying top attention to the exhibited images

and subsequently resuming their march after relishing the magic of black and white. 


Copyright Text and Indicated Photos: José Manuel Serrano Esparza

MARTIN LUTHER KING FUNERAL APRIL 9, 1968: LISL STEINER IN ACTION

April 9, 1968. Five days after  the assassination of the civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Martin Luther King, Jr., 

               Martin Luther King in 1965. © Lisl Steiner                                   

one of the most important men of Twentieth Century, as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis (Tennessee), the coffin with his body is now inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta (Georgia), the same in which both King and his father had served as senior pastors.

It´s 10:15 h in the morning and all of his family (his wife Coretta Scott King, his children Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, Bernice Albertine King, his mother Alberta Christine Williams King, his father Martin Luther King Sr, his brother A. D. Williams King, Mahalia Jackson, and Coretta´s parents who had arrived from Alabama) and closest aides and friends (Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Bernard Lee, Hosea Williams, Thomas Kilgore, Fred Shuttlesworth, James Bevel, James Orange, Samuel Billy Kyles, B. Clarence Mayfeld  and many more) are about to arrive at the church for the first funeral service for Martin Luther King scheduled at 10:30 h inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church. 

A lot of relevant dignitaries, politicians, heads and ambassadors of worldwide states and personalities of culture and sport sphere who have travelled to Atlanta to attend to Martin Luther King´s funeral are also about to arrive: Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy, Vice President Hubert Humphrie, Jacqueline Kennedy, Sammy Davis Jr, Paul Newman, Richard Nixon, Marlon Brando, Hailie Selassie, Dizzie Gillespie, Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, Wilt Chamberlain, Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, Michigan Governor George Romney, Floyd Patterson, Jim Brown, Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, Sydney Poitier, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Bill Cosby, Ossie Davis, Diana Ross, Massachusets Senator Edward Brooke, Eartha Kitt, Rabbi Harold Gordon, Ralph Bunche, James Baldwin, and many others.

The photojournalist Lisl Steiner, working for Keystone Press Agency, is covering the events with other acclaimed photojournalists like Bob Adelman (Magnum), Erich Hartmann (Magnum), Cornell Capa (Magnum), Constantin Manos (Magnum), Moneta Sleet (Ebony Magazine), J.P. Laffont (Sygma), Don Hogan Charles (New York Times), Flip Schulke (Life), Charles Tasnadi (AP), Mel Finkelstein (New York Daily News) and others.

Lisl is working with two cameras: 

a medium format Rolleiflex 2 ¼ x 2 ¼  2.8f K7F Type 1 (made between 1960 and 1981) featuring a lower Zeiss Planar 80 mm f/2.8 taking lens with Deckel Synchro-Compur MXV 60 sec to 1/500 sec plus B central shutter and an upper Heidosmat 80 mm f/2.8 viewing lens) and 

a Leica M2 with Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 SAWOM and a Super Angulon-M 21 mm f/3.4.

This first programmed funeral service for Martin Luther King is going to be officiated by his best friend Ralph David Abernathy inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church (whose limited capacity is 1,300) that within a few minutes will be utterly packed with many of the country's political leaders, as well as a number of labor leaders, foreign dignitaries, entertainment and sports figures and leaders from numerous religious faiths.

And after this first funeral service, everybody will take part in a massive three-mile procession through Auburn Avenue, led by Martin Luther King´s casket loaded on a simple wooden farm wagon drawn by two mules, that will start its march near the church and will go to the Campus of Morehouse College (the one in which King had studied and graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Sociology in 1948, being only 19 years old), where the second funeral service for Martin Luther King is due to be held at 14:00 h in the afternoon, and the procession will subsequently go to the Atlanta South-View Cemetery (founded by former slaves in 1866) for his interment.

Approximately 150,000 people (a very high figure for the time) are waiting outside the church and across the 3 miles of the scheduled itinerary, wishing to accompany one of the most important men of XX Century during the procession.

The heat is sweltering and it´s very difficult to move in any direction.

Lisl Steiner´s eyes were witnesses of Martin Luther King´s funeral, one of the most significant events in the History of Photojournalism.    

Lisl is now located standing near the main door of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and has already seen that Don Hogan Charles (photojournalist of New York Times) and Erich Hartmann (Magnum) have managed to get places near the church main door on elevated positions from which to take pictures.

The previous day she has also taken some photographs from high spots, specially with her Leica M2 and Super Angulon-M 21 mm f/3.4 of the long queues of people waiting to get inside the church to see Martin Luther King in his coffin.

But conditions now on April 9, 1968, with midday approaching, have become increasingly worse to make photographs: the nearby area to the main door of the church is absolutely overcrowded with thousands of mourners, since everybody pines for seeing Coretta Scott King, King´s children and his comrades aides of the SCLC, and to cap it all, there are some people raising Super 8 mm and 16 mm movie cameras over their heads, trying to record King´s relatives, aides and famous personalities entering the church.

In a context like this, having a press accreditation doesn´t guarantee to be able to get near the famous persons to take pictures whatsoever, since the areas around them are jam-packed, and at the same time, the fear to a new racist attack renders to approach as much as possible to the subjects (the short distances in which Lisl likes to work, always trying to be at the right place at the right moment as the key factor to capture representative moments) exceedingly difficult, because the security men are specially active and often ward off any kind of approximation or inadvertently cross in the photojournalists shooting trajectories while doing their protective tasks. 

Therefore, the stress is maximum and Lisl realizes she must take a quick decision: either getting a fixed position on an elevated point or among the huddled people, striving after getting pictures the best she can.

It´s virtually impossible to move in any direction, but she takes the riskiest choice: she will mingle among the crowd, fighting to move at every moment and making a way for herself, taking pictures from different spots.

Suddenly, she sees in the distance Robert Kennedy with his wife Ethel arriving at the Ebenezer Baptist Church for the first funeral service. Both of them are heavily escorted by SCLC members and some private security men. Many people are approaching them, which slows down their march, so Lisl advances with strenuous effort towards them, making her way through the throng, until she is almost at point blank range.

Only one of the SCLC escorting members separates her from Robert Kennedy. It´s a delicate moment, because everybody is exceedingly nervous, specially the men tackling security missions. Lisl decides not to use her Leica raising the camera to her eyes, but her medium format Rolleiflex and 

                                         © Lisl Steiner

shoots from her chest, looking through the waist level finder and getting the picture, with Robert Kennedy in the center of the frame and Ethel, behind him, on the right.

But now Lisl is more enclosed among a sea of mourners. She can´t move. There are thousands of people around her and not even an inch of ground is unoccupied, so it´s impossible for her to have visual references of King´s friends or personalities who are arriving now, with only fifteen minutes remaining for the beginning of the mass in remembrance of MLK.

She needs to advance any way to get an acceptable watching point. 

Enhanced by the cramming people, the heat is increasingly stifling. She sweats very much and gets fidgety: the risk of not being able to get through the cluster of mourners is apparent.

But she is stubborn. Meter by meter, she manages to advance, striving after reaching a location from which to identify personalities to get them pictures, and after fighting very much, she attains it.

Now, she is watching Jackie Kennedy, who is walking being escorted by two policemen and some private security members wearing sunglasses behind her.

By dint of courage and resolve, Lisl approaches progressively to them, once more opening a way for herself through the multitude.

She´s now only a few meters from Jackie Kennedy, but the policemen and security members don´t allow anybody to approach. 

Lisl realizes she must act very fast and above all discreetly. She will only have a shot chance.

She´s at the moment at a distance of approximately two meters from Jackie, and analyses the context: the security men behind Jackie are greatly concealed by the bodies of the two uniformed policemen protecting her, Jackie looks deep in thought and nervous, with her tongue half outside her lips, the woman behind her is looking at her right, a white priest wearing white collar is also walking absent-minded, the uniformed policeman on the left has got an instant of distraction while keeping tabs on Jackie, and the policeman on the right has momentarily his both eyes closed because of the fatigue, stress and sweat.

                                         © Lisl Steiner

It´s now when Lisl presses the release button of the Compur between lens leaf shutter of her medium format 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ Rolleiflex and gets the picture, amazingly capturing them all utterly unaware, to such an extent that none of them are looking at the camera.

                                                        © Lisl Steiner

A few seconds later she manages to photograph Mahalia Jackson, who has just arrived at the funeral. She is being escorted by one of the security members and is surrounded by some photographers and a great multitude overcrowding the place.

Once again, she is enclosed within the great crowd massed outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta (Georgia). She can´t move and everybody craves specially for seeing Martin Luther King´s most significant aides through years, belonging to the SCLC. 

Lisl is now at a distance of around one hundred meters from the main door of Ebenezer Baptist Church and knows that the most important images for her assignment are the ones of Martin Luther King´s prominent aides and great friends: Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Farmer, Jesse Jackson, Bernard Lee, James Orange, B. Clarence Mayfield, Thomas Kilgore, Fred Shuttleworth and others.

Expectation is reaching a climax and Ralph Abernathy, who must officiate the mass, hasn´t arrived yet.

A few more minutes go by. The heat is unbearable and from time to time there are some unavoidable moments of hassle among the persons near the church, because everybody wants to watch events.

Suddenly, Lisl sees in the distance Ralph David Abernathy (King´s best friend and his successor), James Farmer - principal founder of the Congress for Racial Equality who played a towering role in the civil rights movement as a direct action leader- who goes by Abernathy, on his left, in the usual place of Andrew Young, King´s second chief deputy and another prominent member of the Civil Rights Movement, who for security reasons is going apart escorted by a policeman), Thomas Kilgore ( an important man of the SCLC in the South and on both coasts, key organizer of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom to Washington in 1957 and the Civil Rights March on Washington of 1963, who is walking by Abernathy, on his right), B. Clarence Mayfield (Civil Rights Leader in Savannah during late fifties and sixties, who joined King´s SCLC and became a great friend of his), Fred Shuttleworth (one of the founders of the SCLC with Abernathy, Bayard Rustin and MLK, and the key man of the human rights movement in Alabama during late fifties and sixties) and other men of Martin Luther King´s inner circle walking towards the Ebenezer Church.

Bright-line frames (each one seen separately in the viewfinder, since the frames are modified automatically on changing the lenses or using the preview lever) of the Leica M2, the rangefinder camera used by Lisl Steiner to get the pictures of Martin Luther King´s great friends and aides during the funeral of the human rights leader on April 9, 1968 in Atlanta (Georgia). Taking advantage of the new specific bright-line for 35 mm lenses (a missing feature in the Leica M3) using her 8 elements in 6 groups Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 SAWOM objective (a symmetrical Double-Gauss designed by Walter Mandler in the factory Ernst Leitz Canada of Midland, Ontario), she was able to capture highly defining moments of the day from a very short distance, in an exceedingly discreet and silent way, photographing with remarkable quickness.

Once again, she is bound to change her position and veer, trying to reach Abernathy´s group before they´re too close to the main door of the church, where it would be nearly impossible to get pictures, since it is fully packed.

Advancing with great difficulties through the crowd, her march is inevitably rather plodding and she is afraid that perhaps she won´t be able to arrive in time to make photographs of Abernathy and his entourage made up by others King´s great friends and aides of the SCLC.

Once more, Lisl has to take decisions. She notices that hundreds of volunteer members of the SCLC and some policemen have set up a security path through which King´s woman and children, rest of relatives, his most significant aides and the famous guests will walk up to the church.

There´s the great fear of a new racist assassination attempt on King´s relatives, Abernathy or any other of King´s aides.

Lisl has been in this area for two days and nights, so she knows the place, and decides to wait standing on the nearest area of Auburn Avenue giving to the main door of Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Two big security men are just in front of Lisl at the moment, and they prevent anybody from approaching more.

Ralph David Abernathy and his entourage go on advancing. There´s a sepulchral silence and thousands of people are crying.

In very few seconds Lisl Steiner will have them around five meters in front of her.

Now, the two security members abandon a bit their positions and advance in the direction of Abernathy, Thomas Kilgore, James Farmer, B. Clarence Mayfield, Fred Shuttlesworth and the rest of SCLC men to protect them as much as possible from anybody trying to approach or any kind of attack with gun. Stress is very high. Both security members are with their hips towards King´s friends and paying uttermost attention to their flanks, so a momentaneous gap is generated between both of them.

The context is now also very delicate. Both security members are very nervious. Lisl realizes she will just have a one shot chance and will have to make things with utmost speed and discretion.

Therefore, she advances as much as she can to the limit (being very careful not to go beyond the two security men) and this time she won´t use her medium format 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ Rolleiflex, but her rangefinder Leica M2 ( a great and very versatile photojournalistic tool for the capture of this kind of image with its 0.72x magnification and framelines for 35, 50 or 90 mm lenses) with Summicron-M 35 mm f/2, 

Finder eyepiece of Lisl Steiner´s Leica M2 featuring a 0.72x rangefinder calculated by Willi Keiner (and which also had some design concepts provided by Heinrich Schneider) optimized for the par excellence photojournalistic 35 mm wideangle lens, whose brightline frame appears permanently within the viewfinder as standard, with the convenience it means, unlike the somewhat clumsiness of the Summaron 35 mm f/3.5 and Summaron 35 mm f/2.8 with the Leica M3, which require a spectacles viewfinder attachment converting the field of view of the 50 mm bright-line VF frame for which the M3 is optimized into the correct field of view for the 35 mm field, enabling accurate framing.

Lisl Steiner´s Leica M2 combined rangefinder and viewfinder system: from left to right, window of the RF, striated illuminating window for finder frames (rendering an extremely even overall illumination, particularly outstanding for wideangle viewing) and window of the viewfinder. The 0.91x VF magnification of the Leica M3 was reduced to 0.72x in the Leica M2 to make the 35 mm viewfinder feasible.

the best possible binomial fostered by the optical computations of this camera RF calculated by Willi Klein, who managed to add a bright-line frame for 35 mm wideangle lenses which the Leica M3 lacked.

Concentration is maximum, since this is a defining moment, a concept Lisl has heard explain many times to the great Alfred Eisenstaedt, with whom she has worked inside United Nations building in New York for some years.

The small space around the 35 mm lens brightline frame of her Leica M2 enables Lisl to see what is happening immediately outside the boundaries of the image on the left and on the right, a key factor in this photograph, because the two security men might move at any moment and conceal Ralph David Abernathy, Thomas Kilgore, James Farmer, Fred Shuttleworth, B. Clarence Mayfield and the rest of King´s aides and friends, so she fastly presses the release button of the rubberized cloth shutter of her mirrorless rangefinder camera, which renders an exceedingly whispering low noise sound, virtually imperceptible and decisive to preserve the discretion.

                                        © Lisl Steiner

Lisl Steiner has been successful taking them all (Thomas Kilgore, Ralph Abernathy and James Farmer in the middle of the picture, while Fred Shuttlesworth appears behind Abernathy´s left shoulder, and B. Clarence Mayfield behind the right area of James Farmer´s face) by surprise, to such an extent that none of the ten aides of Martin Luther King are looking at the photographer and they haven´t detected at all either the presence of Lisl or her Leica M2. And the same has happened with the two security members, fully unaware about what has just happened.

Needless to say that the absence of blackout of the image due to the lack of a tilting mirror (what enables the photographer to see the subjects at every moment) and the staggeringly short 0.0011 milliseconds shutter lag of the Leica M2 has also been of invaluable help in terms of quickness shooting.

Very few minutes later, the first funeral service for Martin Luther King, officiated by Ralph Abernathy, begins inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church and will last for an hour.

Meanwhile, vast majority of the photojournalists covering the event wait outside, located in the surroundings of the main door of the church, because the coming out of Martin Luther King´s coffin taken handheld by some of his great friends and aides up to the wooden farm wagon drawn by two mules on which it will be laid, will be one of the most significant moments of the day.

At 11:40 h, vast majority of personalities attending King´s funeral have already gone out of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and have walked from the church main door to the beginning of the procession which will be led by the mules drawn rickety farm wagon with King´s coffin on it up to the Morehouse College.

Everywhere is overcrowded by thousands of mourners, while inside the church Martin Luther King´s most significant aides and some men of the Marcellous Thornton and Hanley Bell Street funeral firms are arranging King´s bier to begin taking it handheld out of the building towards Auburn Avenue.

At last, at around 11:45 h, Lisl sees in the distance the casket of Martin Luther King which is getting out of the church, being taken handheld by Jesse Jackson, James Orange, other also prominent leaders of the SCLC (all of them great friends of Martin Luther King) and some members of the Board of Deacons of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The atmosphere of the place and its surroundings becomes awesome and a total silence, even more apparent than before, reigns supreme around King´s coffin and the nearby areas overcrowded with people weeping tearfully.

Thousands and thousands of persons try to approach as much as possible to see the bier, so the policemen and security members of the SCLC become inevitably more strict in thwarting any attempt of getting closer.

Now, the area of Auburn Avenue beside the Ebenezer Baptist Church is wholly full of security members.

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400, the 35 mm film used by vast majority of photojournalist covering Martin Luther King´s Funeral on April 9, 1968 in Atlanta (Georgia). Its very high sensitivity for the time, wide exposure latitude enabling to tackle the most challenging lighting situations, outstanding acutance, unique grain structure attaining a great level of realism and dramatism matching each subject and versatility turned it into a top-notch all-around performer chosen by a lot of pros for action reportages.

Lisl Steiner is at the moment located standing near the main door of Ebenezer Baptist Church and has already seen that Don Hogan Charles (New York Times) and Erich Hartmann (Magnum) have managed to get places in the proximity of the church main door, on elevated positions from which to take pictures.

A sea of people fills every inch of the place and its surroundings, even more than during the previous hours, because the moment when Martin Luther King´s casket will go out of the church is approaching.

On the other hand, the persons who were by the main door one hour before with 16 mm and Super 8 mm movie cameras, are still fixed in their positions and will raise again their cinematographic equipment over their heads from the very moment King´s bier starts crossing the church door outwards to record the moment.

Lisl realizes that it will be impossible to capture King´s aides taking his coffin from the same spot she made the picture of Abernathy, Kilgore, James Farmer, B. Clarence Mayfield, Fred Shuttlesworth and others group roughly one hour ago while they walked towards the church, so she takes the most undaunted decision of the day to stay true to her photographing style: to walk backwards making a way for herself among the crowd, to get a new location approximately 25 meters behind, near the wooden farm wagon pulled by two mules which is already waiting with Hosea Williams (who will walk clad in overalls in front of King´s casket and the mules), Bernard Lee (King´s personal assistant and travelling companion through sixties, who will also walk in front of the very humble hearse) and Albert Turner (Alabama´s SCLC Director who will hold the animals´ reins) next to it.

James Orange and Jesse Jackson go on advancing, grabbing the front handles of Martin Luther King´s bier, while the rest of active pallbearers (Milton Cornelius, Jethro English, Arthur Henderson, Howard Dowdy, C.K.Steele, Fred Shuttleworth and Fred C. Bennette) go behind them grabbing the middle and back handles.

Once more, Lisl fights to her utmost to arrive in time at the place she has visually chosen, located at a short distance from the green wooden farm wagon drawn by two mules on which King´s casket will be put.

She is now sweating profusely, since the heat has reached its peak, emotions are running very high and everybody is restless, so she must be very careful not to turn anybody on edge while she endeavors to reach the location from which she will try to photograph the pallbearers taking Martin Luther King´s coffin.

Finally, after plenty of suffering and tension, she manages to reach by the skin of her teeth the spot she has chosen in advance.

But Martin Luther King´s casket is now very near, at a distance of around ten meters, with the very tall and sturdy James Orange holding part of its front handle with his left hand while Jesse Jackson is doing the same with his right hand. 

The rest of pallbearers are behind them, barely visible because they´re mostly covered by the bodies of Orange, Jackson and a very tall security man of the SCLC who advances next to Jackson and whose mission is to prevent anybody from approaching to the pallbearers, a task shared by the younger security man visible behind James Orange´s right arm, who because of the great stress and heat has loosened both his tie and the top button of his shirt.

After very few seconds, Lisl is already very near them, almost at point blank range, and once more she is aware that only a shot will be possible.

Her attention is maximum and suddenly, there´s an instant in which Jesse Jackson has got his eyes oriented towards the other side of Auburn Avenue, with a lost gaze and highly distressed (he was with Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy and Hosea Williams on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was slain by a bullet shot by a racist assassin* with a 30-06 Springfield rifle on April 4, 1968), the tall security man by him has got his eyes momentarily closed because of the tension and sweat, the even much taller and bulkier security man nearest Lisl and wearing a dark cap is looking at the coffin, a very sorrowful James Orange has got his head low, and the other younger security man (sweating very much and rather tired) has his left eye close for a little while and his right one about to close, and the two pall bearers behind James Orange are looking at the right.

                                      © Lisl Steiner

Now is the moment in which Lisl Steiner presses the release button of the rubberized cloth shutter of her 24 x 36 mm format rangefinder mirrorless Leica M2 camera connected to a Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 SAWOM and gets the picture, a great photojournalistic document oozing drama and a defining moment enhanced by the presence of a mourner on a wheelchair on far left of the image and a futher very upset young mourner (fourth from the left, who can be hardly glimpsed and clearly with his head down in affliction.

45 years later. May 25, 2013. Lobby of the Kaiserin Elisabeth Hotel in Vienna. Lisl Steiner by a 13" x 18 " copy of the picture she got of Martin Luther King´s coffin being taken by James Orange, Jesse Jackson and other Martin Luther King´s aides and great friends of the SCLC on April 9, 1968, the day of the funeral of the unforgettable leader of human rights, one of the greatest men in history.

Original New York Daily News from April 10, 1968 with cover photography showing the terrible scene of the interment of Martin Luther King in the South-View Cemetery of Atlanta (Georgia) at 17:19 h in the afternoon of the previous day. It has been preserved by Lisl Steiner for almost half a century. Ralph Abernathy (on far left of the image), is crying a river, while Hosea Williams, Fred Shuttleworth, Jesse Jackson, and other SCLC aides and friends of King begin burying his coffin. The very tall and burly James Orange (another of MLK´s great friends and aides) is standing behind Jesse Jackson, also weeping.

Text and Indicated Photos: José Manuel Serrano Esparza

* Though the widespread statement is that Martin Luther King´s assassin was James Earl Ray, the most updated researches indicate that he might not have been the man who pulled the trigger of the 30-06 Springfield caliber Remington 760 GameMaster rifle which slew Martin Luther King. 

Even, Dexter King, the second son of the legendary civil right leader, had the chance of talking to James Earl Ray in prison in 1997, and both him and the rest of Martin Luther King´s family have expressed different times their conviction that James Earl Ray wasn´t the man who killed him. 

On the other hand, deep studies carried out throughout decades till now by experts in gesture language, voice pitch, facial expressions and specific vocabulary used, have reached the unanimous conclusion that when this great man delivered his last speech in Memphis on April 3, 1968, he had a hunch that he would be assassinated very soon:

LAST SPEECH BY MARTIN LUTHER KING  

LISL STEINER: 63 YEARS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY´S FUNERAL PHOTOGRAPHED BY LISL STEINER

PELÉ PHOTOGRAPHED BY LISL STEINER

FRANZ BECKENBAUER PHOTOGRAPHED BY LISL STEINER

FIDEL CASTRO PHOTOGRAPHED BY LISL STEINER IN NEW YORK IN SEPTEMBER OF 1960

SOCIETY IS KAPUT  & OTHER TRUTHS FROM AN AGELESS SPIRIT: LISL STEINER REACHES 400,000 YOUTUBE VISITS