Alessandro Pasi

Mixing photography, history, and the lore of the camera, Leica: Witness to a Century is a narrowly-focused coffee-table book that appeals to a broader audience than its title would suggest. Author Alessandro Pasi narrates a lavishly illustrated history of the Leica camera, a popular tool for journalists covering the events of the twentieth century. Each chapter in the Leica's history is accompanied by a detailed examination of the camera models available and a sampling of photographs from well-known photographers that represent important characters, events, and movements of the past hundred years. The oversize volume is beautifully designed and presented, and the quality of the photography is, of course, superb. Minor quibbles are the occasional awkwardness of the English translation of the text and the fact that all the detail about the different camera models is likely to be overkill for readers who are not Leica connoisseurs. Nonetheless, Leica: Witness to a Century is a well-crafted tribute to a tool that was – and still is – used by many skilled hands to document the times that we live in.… (more)