100 Years Later, Embrace the Cult of the Red Dot in a New Book
Aug 20, 2025
David Prochnow
Our resident “how-to” project editor, David Prochnow, lives on the Gulf Coast of the United States in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He brings his expertise at making our photography projects accessible to everyone, from a lengthy stint acting as the Contributing How-To Editor with Popular Science magazine. While you don’t have to actually build each of his projects, reading about these adventures will contribute to your continued overall appreciation of do-it-yourself photography. A collection of David’s best Popular Science projects can be found in the book, “The Big Book of Hacks,” Edited by Doug Cantor.
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How does an optical instrument company celebrate the 100th anniversary of one of the most iconic cameras in the history of photography? Well, Leica Camera AG honored the birth of the Leica I camera with worldwide events, a rather oddball mix of gifts, two pedestrian cameras with a garish colorway and minor addition of some text, and a book. The $70 book, 100 Leica Stories (Leica Camera AG, Wetzlar, Germany; 2025), attempts to convey the magic that is embodied within the Leica brand via an anthology of 100 curated passages spread out over 320 pages.
Unfortunately, the text occasionally suffers from a terse, Teutonic writing style that lacks the kind of excitement and enthusiasm that is typically exhibited by most Leica camera owners. Even more disappointing is the reproduction of some of the Leica photographs that illustrate these stories. Images that have been over-enlarged are spread through the book’s gutter emphasizing the questionable choices made by the Leica editorial team in the direction and design of this book.
An Opportunity Lost
The production of this book would have been better served by hiring an outside advertising firm to oversee all of its editorial and design decisions. In addition to the questionable image quality, the text is hampered by some typographical errors and judgmental lapses in phraseology. For example, “…the red circle that Leica and Japan share in common” when describing a pre-world war product distribution relationship.
Finally, there is something about the material and finish that Leica chose for the hardbound cover of the book. It has a rough, almost grainy texture that might’ve been intended to suggest the grain of 35mm film, but, instead, delivers another unpleasant engagement for the reader.
Enjoy.
David Prochnow
Our resident “how-to” project editor, David Prochnow, lives on the Gulf Coast of the United States in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He brings his expertise at making our photography projects accessible to everyone, from a lengthy stint acting as the Contributing How-To Editor with Popular Science magazine. While you don’t have to actually build each of his projects, reading about these adventures will contribute to your continued overall appreciation of do-it-yourself photography. A collection of David’s best Popular Science projects can be found in the book, “The Big Book of Hacks,” Edited by Doug Cantor.
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