Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
– John Abernathy
Throwing a Leica like that shows commitment!
Leica’s have been used to take some iconic photos by conflict photojournalists since at least WW2. Absolutely crazy that the camera didn’t get damaged, but Leica’s have definitely see some abuse over the years.
https://gmpphoto.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-story-of-sean-flynns-leica-m2.html?m=1
Also, while you or I might see that and wince because of the potential damage to an expensive piece of kit, to him it’s just a tool that allows him to do his work of photographing, and preventing ICE from deleting those photographs that serve as a record of what’s happening in Minneapolis right now would probably worth any amount of cameras to any of the photojournalists there right now.
This is seriously a stunning photograph.