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THE HAGUE by Erich Salomon
Portly statesmen have long gathered to weigh the fate
of nations, cigars and brandy at the ready. But they were
always sequestered far from prying eyes. The German
photo journalist Erich Salomon changed all that, slipping
into those smoke-filled back rooms with a small Leica
camera built to shoot in low light. Nowhere was his skill on
greater display than during a 1930 meeting in the Hague
over German World War I reparations. There, at 2 a.m.,
Salomon candidly shot exhausted Foreign Ministers after
a long day of negotiations. The picture created a sensation
when it was published in the London Graphic. For the first
time, the public could look through the doors of power and
see world leaders with their guard down. Salomon, who
died in Auschwitz 12 years later, had created backstage
political photojournalism.