davidkilpatrick
Member
Ray, your post reminded my of my friend Dick Bryant, who produced MINOLTA MIRROR for so many years prior to his rather premature retirement by Minolta - and his very sad death so shortly after retiring, unexpected in a man who appeared to have nothing but energy to travel the world and meet photographers.
Dick was, in a way, responsible for fostering Minolta professionals. I met many who never made it to the front line, but still got MIRROR exposure, and often the loan of equipment (or at the very least, they traded images for gear - remember the lens boxes with pictures on? I got my XE-1 50mm f1.4 and 24mm lens in return for one lens box, and an 80-200mm I think in return for a Minolta calendar image).
Once Dick was gone, I thought perhaps Minolta might hire me or maybe Hans Wiesenhofer (who was travelling more internationally) to locate and help professionals suitable for exposure. Or even continue MIRROR (it was most likely that Germany would have got the job of doing that, as they networked far better with the Japanese in Europe). But no-one got the job. There was no USA Minolta publication at the time, Germany was otherwise engaged I guess, Austria (Hans) was like me (UK) too independent of the company, and the Netherlands too small a publishing venture.
You can tell where I started with Minolta from - back in 1974, effectively recruited to try Minolta after meeting their UK PR officer to test camera for PHOTOGRAPHY magazine. I was amazed by the lens quality right from the first test (SRT-100) and asked to buy the test camera. Instead they suggested I write a column for their club magazine in return. Six years later, when the distributor closed down and Minolta set up a subsidiary in the UK, I was asked to take over the club and the magazine.
We're still doing it despite efforts by KM and Sony to bury it at the time of the changeover!
David
Dick was, in a way, responsible for fostering Minolta professionals. I met many who never made it to the front line, but still got MIRROR exposure, and often the loan of equipment (or at the very least, they traded images for gear - remember the lens boxes with pictures on? I got my XE-1 50mm f1.4 and 24mm lens in return for one lens box, and an 80-200mm I think in return for a Minolta calendar image).
Once Dick was gone, I thought perhaps Minolta might hire me or maybe Hans Wiesenhofer (who was travelling more internationally) to locate and help professionals suitable for exposure. Or even continue MIRROR (it was most likely that Germany would have got the job of doing that, as they networked far better with the Japanese in Europe). But no-one got the job. There was no USA Minolta publication at the time, Germany was otherwise engaged I guess, Austria (Hans) was like me (UK) too independent of the company, and the Netherlands too small a publishing venture.
You can tell where I started with Minolta from - back in 1974, effectively recruited to try Minolta after meeting their UK PR officer to test camera for PHOTOGRAPHY magazine. I was amazed by the lens quality right from the first test (SRT-100) and asked to buy the test camera. Instead they suggested I write a column for their club magazine in return. Six years later, when the distributor closed down and Minolta set up a subsidiary in the UK, I was asked to take over the club and the magazine.
We're still doing it despite efforts by KM and Sony to bury it at the time of the changeover!
David
roud:.