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Skateboarding, photography, music – these three activities make up the world of Ray Barbee, who has been a team rider for Vans for over 20 years. The pioneer of modern skateboarding is well-known for the elegant style that he also conveys to his Leica photography and his music. It was a real honour for Ray Barbee to join forces with the iconic brands of Vans and Leica, to design a camera. The limited, special edition,Leica D-Lux 7 Vans x Ray Barbee is a camera that truly captures the feel of the skateboarding scene.

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Designed with joy.

The limited, special edition Leica D-Lux 7 “Vans x Ray Barbee” delights with the iconic Vans checker board pattern. The top side is adorned with the engraved signature of Ray Barbee, skateboarder, musician and photographer. The Ray Barbee quote, “The joy is in capturing the journey” appears on one side of the dust bag especially designed for this camera; on the other side are the proverbial words by Ernst Leitz II, that launched the production of the Leica I: “Ich entscheide hiermit: Es wird riskiert” (“I hereby decide: it will be risked”, 1924). The carrier strap and dust bag in petrol green, perfectly complement the camera’s black and white design.

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“Sometimes I want the viewers to see what I saw, but more importantly I want them to see what I didn’t see in my own image. There’s a lot of beauty in appreciating different per-spectives.”
Ray Barbee

From Ray Barbee’s perspective, there are just small steps between the extroverted attitude of the skateboarding scene, the creative spirit of jazz music, and the observational appreciation of the photographic moment. Shifting between worlds, his black and white photographs are sometimes loud, sometimes quiet, but always full of joie de vivre.

Leica Blog 

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Three legends come together.

The collaboration between Leica, Ray Barbee and Vans is not just limited to the Leica D-Lux 7 “Vans x Ray Barbee”. Vans is also producing complementary T-shirts and shoes with checker-board lining, quotes by Ray Barbee and Ernst Leitz II, and red shoelace eyelets as a nod to Leica.