Leica M3 (top view) by Yukio Miyamoto

Leica M3 (top view) by Yukio Miyamoto In the '50s and '60s when Leica IIIs and M3s were being manufactured a photographer wanting one in the UK needed an import licence. The UK Government had an obsession about our balance of payments. There is a joke about this in the original of The Italian Job in an early scene between Noel Coward and Michael Caine. To get an import licence photographers had to demonstrate their work was of such standing they required the best equipment. To Civil Servants who issued such licences there was only one measure of such standing: Did said photographer sell their images to customers outside the UK to a value that exceeded the cost of the camera - that with an appropriate lens cost about the same as a pair of semi's in England. At a retail level Leica remains underdeveloped in the UK as a result of these restrictions. Yukio Miyamoto's files are extraordinary, we have three dozen or so views of the M3 model he built, this is one of my favourites. It is bold, surprising and interesting but not shouty - it starts pleasant conversations.