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Huge tip of the pen to cover artist of several Life magazines, John Held jr. This is a riff on the February 18th, 1926 issue.
The 7th of 10 sketch cards done for the Prohibition Pretties trading card set by Island Dreams Cards.
©j(ay)
Sketch card
September 2o15
j(ay)
According to Legend, in Tokyo in June 1950, a young Japanese photographer, Jun Miki, a part-timer for ‘Life’ magazine showed two American photojournalists, David Duncan and Horace Bristol, some prints he had taken with a barely known ‘Nikkor’ lens on a Leica 35mm camera. They were both sufficiently impressed to arrange for a trip for the three of them to the nearby Nippon Kogaku factory where they were given a demonstration and a comparison between the Nikkors and the lenses made by Leitz and Zeiss.
Duncan was so convinced by the superiority of the Nikkors over the German lenses of that time that he purchased a set. When the Korean War broke out a few days later he used them on his Leica bodies throughout his coverage of the war.
His negatives were sent back to Life’s New York office for printing and publication. The technicians asked if he was using a plate camera and considered that the sharpness of the photographs was better than anything they had previously seen from 35mm negatives.
Other Life photojournalists started using Nikkors and some purchased Nippon Kogaku’s rangefinder Nikon Cameras which they found to be more reliable in the severe Korean winter.
Experts examined both the camera and lenses and in December the New York Times ran an article in praise of the equipment.
A myth developed that Life magazine was so impressed with the results that they ordered a special batch of black painted Nikon S bodies for their staff. The black finish made them less conspicuous on the battlefield and some had larger wind-on and rewind knobs for easier handling with gloves.
Continued ............