✨AI Reimagines the Masters✨ Oskar Barnack|3/1000

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Introduce briefly

Oskar Barnack was a German inventor and photographer who is best known for building the first commercially successful 35mm still-camera, which later became known as the Ur-Leica. He was born on November 1, 1879, in Nuthe-Urstromtal, Brandenburg, Germany, and passed away on January 16, 1936, in Bad Nauheim, Hesse, Germany [1].

Life and Career:

Barnack was an engineer at the Leitz company and suffered from asthma, which led him to propose reducing the size and weight of cameras to be able to take photographs during his travels [1].

Between 1913 and 1914, Barnack adapted 35mm cinematic film for still-camera use with a larger negative than other 35mm cameras. His design allowed for an extended frame size of 24×36 mm with a 2:3 aspect ratio, which could be enlarged to obtain sharper positive images [1].

Barnack tried various types of lenses to find the best quality images. Leica's first suitable lens was a 50 mm f/3.5 design based on the "Cooke triplet," which later evolved into the famous Leica Elmar series of lenses [1].

In 1923, Barnack convinced his boss, Ernst Leitz II, to produce a series of 31 pre-production cameras. The prototypes received a mixed reception, but in 1924, the Leica I (Leitz camera) was released and became a success when presented at the Spring Fair of Leipzig in 1925 [1].

Legacy:

Barnack was one of the first photographers to create news images that showed people's relationship to their surroundings. He made the first news image with a 35mm camera, capturing the flood caused by the Lahn River in Wetzlar [1].

In 1979, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, the Leica Oskar Barnack Prize was established. This prize is awarded to professional photographers whose series of images capture and express the relationship between man and the environment [1].