technical note on Diane Arbus photos

Madelon Umlauf austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
Tue Jul 6 14:37:48 2004


Connie,

Thanks for the report. 

According to the Aperture book, Arbus used a 
Mamiya twin-reflex square 6x6cm format for most
of her pictures. This is like a Rolleiflex but you can
change lenses for different shooting situations.

Looking at the pictures themselves in the Aperture
book, all or nearly all are full frame, not cropped in 
the darkroom. If the picture is square and indoors, 
she took it with the Mamiya (a big somewhat clunky 
camera). I suspect she used the Rolleiflex more 
outdoors as it is lighter than a Nikon even much
less a Mamiya Twin-Reflex.

Mike