EYES WIDE OPEN
100 YEARS OF
LEICA FOTOGRAFIE

The exhibition Eyes Wide Open: 100 Years of Leica Photography illuminates across fourteen chapters various aspects of recent small-format photography, from journalistic strategies to documentary approaches and free artistic positions, spanning fourteen chapters. Among the artists whose work will be shown are Alexander Rodchenko, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Christer Strömholm, Robert Frank, Bruce Davidson, William Klein, William Eggleston, René Burri, Thomas Hoepker and Bruce Gilden. Following its premiere in the House of Photography at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, the exhibition will travel to Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna and Munich.

Some 550 photographs, supplemented by documentary material, including journals, magazines, books, advertisements, brochures, camera prototypes and films, will recount the history of small-format photography from its beginnings to the present day. The exhibition, which is curated by Hans-Michael Koetzle, follows the course of technological change and photographic history.

The exhibition Eyes Wide Open: 100 Years of Leica Photography curated by Hans-Michael Koetzle will attempt for the first time to offer a comprehensive overview of the change in photography brought about by the invention and introduction of the Leica. Rather than isolating the history of the camera or considering it for its own sake, it will examine the visual revolution sparked by the technological innovation of the Leica. The exhibition will take an art- and cultural-historical perspective in pursuit of the question of how the photographic gaze changed as a result of the Leica and the small-format picture, and what effects the miniaturization of photography had on the work of amateurs, artists and photojournalists. Not least, it will also seek to determine what new subjects the camera addressed with its wide range of interchangeable lenses, and how these subjects were seen in a new light: a new way of perceiving the world through the Leica viewfinder.

Among the featured photographers are those who are internationally known for their work with Leica cameras as well as amateurs and artists who have not yet been widely associated with small-format photography, including Ilja Ehrenburg, Alfons Walde, Ben Shahn and George Grosz. Important loans, some of which have never been shown before, come from the factory archives of Leica Camera AG in Wetzlar, international collections and museums, as well as private lenders (Sammlung F. C. Gundlach, Sammlung Skrein, Sammlung WestLicht).

Artists
Mehemed Fehmy Agha, Nobuyoshi Araki, Bernd Arnold, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Ellen Auerbach, Ragnar Axelsson, Julia Baier, Micha Bar-Am, Bruno Barbey, Oskar Barnack, Wilfried Bauer, Anton F. Baumann, Horst H. Baumann, Carlo Bavagnoli, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Ferenc Berko, Ilse Bing, Werner Bischof, Edouard Boubat, John Bulmer, René Burri, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gérard Castello-Lopes, Jewgeni Chaldej, Hermann Claasen, Mark Cohen, Joan Colom i Altemir, Peter Cornelius, Bruce Davidson, Raymond Depardon, Dr. Walthari Dietz, Claude Dityvon, Robert Doisneau, David Douglas Duncan, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Mitch Epstein, Elliott Erwitt, Horst Faas, Richard Fleischhut, François Fontaine, Robert Frank, Leonard Freed Gisèle Freund, Lee (Norman) Friedlander, Alberto García-Alix, Ralph Gibson, Bruce Gilden, Michael von Graffenried, René Groebli, George Grosz, Ara Güler, F. C. Gundlach, Arvid Gutschow, Robert Häusser, Hiroshi Hamaya, Elisabeth Hase, Heinrich Heidersberger, Keld Helmer-Petersen, Walter Henisch, François Hers, Fred Herzog, Thomas Hoepker, Frank Horvat, Andrea Hoyer, Jing Huang, Franz Hubmann, Pierre Jamet, Eva Kemlein, William Klein, Barbara Klemm, Viktor Kolár, Alberto Korda, Josef Koudelka, Stefan Kruckenhauser, Kineo Kuwabara, Sergio Larrain, Robert Lebeck, Saul Leiter, Ernst Leitz II, Guy Le Querrec, Erich Lessing, Paula Luttringer, Ulrich Mack, Constantine Manos, Ramón Masats, Leonore Mau, Will McBride, Rudi Meisel, Susan Meiselas, Jeff Mermelstein, Bertrand Meunier, Joel Meyerowitz, Xavier Miserachs, László Moholy-Nagy, Inge Morath, Gabriele Nothhelfer, Helmut Nothhelfer, Paulo Nozolino, Kosuke Okahara, Leopoldo Pómes, Rudolf Pestalozzi, Richard Peter, Timm Rautert, René-Jacques, Marc Riboud, Evelyn Richter, George Rodger, Alexander Rodtschenko, Paolo Roversi, Lothar Rübelt, Sebastião (Ribeiro) Salgado, Dr. Erich Salomon, Toni Schneiders, Tomio Seike, Jeanloup Sieff, Jeffrey Silverthorne, Hans W.(olfgang) Silvester, Christian Skrein, Klavdij Sluban, W. (illiam) Eugene Smith, Humphrey Spender, Liesel Springmann, Anton Stankowski, Louis Stettner, Dennis Stock, Christer Strömholm, Keiichi Tahara, Yutaka Takanashi, Ricard Terré, Alfred Tritschler, Gaël Turine, Umbo., Nick Út, Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Walter Vogel, Alfons Walde, Sabine Weiss, Kai Wiedenhöfer, Alain Willaume, Paul (Heinrich August) Wolff, Tom Wood, Claire Yaffa, Herbie Yamaguchi