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Celebrities who are comfortable on the other side of a camera show off their Leicas include Ali Larter.
By ALEX WILLIAMS – Published: September 19, 2012 — NY Times
The latest status symbol in Hollywood, it seems, is not the 8 p.m. reservation at the Tower Bar, but the Leica M-system range finder, a retro-chic camera that has become the accessory of choice for the celebrity class on red carpets, film sets or vacation.
Let hoi polloi snap away on their iPhones. In an era when full-size cameras are supposedly becoming obsolete, stars advertise their cognoscenti credentials by being seen with a war horse of 20th-century photography that many design fans now embrace as an art object, one that you seemingly need a movie star’s budget to afford.
“If celebrities are going to be seen with a camera, for better or for worse, Leica does lend a certain cachet,” said Michael Holve, a professional photographer on Long Island who runs a Leica enthusiasts’ blog called La Vida Leica! “It seems a Canon or Nikon is somehow bourgeois, or even pedestrian, by comparison.”
The swelling ranks of famous M-system devotees reach beyond those with a well-chronicled affection for the camera, like Brad Pitt. In recent years, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Louis C. K., Miley Cyrus and many other celebrities have popped up in paparazzi shots toting Leicas.
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The musician Seal carried a Leica in Central Park.
