On June 12, the 38th Leitz Photographica Auction is set to offer a large assortment of rare and highly collectible camera products, the most notable of which is a rare Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 lens designed in 1966 for NASA Apollo missions.
As iconic lenses go, perhaps no lens is quite as iconic as the famed NASA Zeiss f/0.7 glass Stanley Kubrick used to film a candle-lit scene using only natural light. In this video we get to see the lens, find out about the camera Kubrick modified to use it, and discover some of the tricks he employed to shoot that scene.
Stanley Kubrick is famous as a filmmaker, but he actually started out his creative career as a photographer. Last year we shared a glimpse into his still photography career.
The video above is a 12-minute tour of the lenses Kubrick collected over the course of his life. Legendary camera pioneer and expert Joe Dunton talks about each item in the collection.
Stanley Kubrick’s legacy will forever be sealed in images. Mostly known for his motion picture work, it wasn’t until after his time as a still photographer that he took on the world of movies. Kubrick began his career as a photographer, at 16-years-old, after a single image seemingly catapulted his way to success.
There is little doubt that auteur Stanley Kubrick looms large as a director able to distinctively bring his films to life through his vision. He has left his mark across the motion picture landscape.
He also happens to be responsible for some very interesting technical results in the realm of photography as well (including owning 3 of the 10 Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 ever made).
Any words I write here about him will pale in comparison to the reams of scholarly works already published. And so, instead, I give you a couple of fascinating pieces of Shining/Kubrick trivia that you can whip out the next time there's a lull in conversation.
Here's an interesting bit of photography/movie trivia that surfaced recently. Remember the infamous HAL 9000? HAL 9000 was the AI villain from Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series, and the main bad guy in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When your grandfather was Dr. Erhard Glatzel, one of the great lens designers of the twentieth century, it won't come as too much of a shock to find out that you've inherited two lenses that, by all accounts, don't officially exist. Other people? Well, they might be a little bit surprised... and a lot bit jealous.
A one-point perspective photograph is one in which there exists only a single vanishing point. Parallel lines in the scene all converge on that single point, leading away from the viewer. It can be used for interesting compositions, especially if that vanishing point is placed at the intersection points of the rule of thirds.
Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has a habit of using one-point perspective for dramatic effect, often with the vanishing point in the dead center of the frame, disorienting the viewer and creating tension for his scenes. Film enthusiast kogonada recently took a bunch of Kubrick films, collected the shots showing this technique, and created the interesting supercut seen above.