technical note on Diane Arbus and the world of 6x6 and 6x7

[Wayne Johnson]

I used to own a Mamiya C220 with both a regular and wide angle lens sets.
It could shoot both 120 and 220 film and the lens specs were very high.
Stopped using same when I got my Mamiya ProS67 as it was SLR format.  Imogen
Cunningham used a Rollei twin lens reflex, I'm pretty sure.  Sure looked
like one.  This was once a great pro-journalism camera because you could
hold it upside down over your head at arms length and "shoot" over the crowd
while looking straight up into the view finder.  Imogen could "hide" the
fact she was shooting people because she appeared to be staring at her feet.
People may be smarter now.

My first camera was a Yashica TLR and it was pretty good for its day.  All
of these are 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" or 6cm x 6 cm.  Hasselblad pretty much
dominated this field for years.  And for all the right reasons.  Love these
big negatives.  You are already 2.5 times larger than a 35 before you get to
the enlarger.  All cameras mentioned have/had great lenses.  Much fun
although veddy, veddy "old fashioned" by today's high-tech standard.  Great
for people who want to shoot medium format and use the Zone System or
similar approach, esp. in B&W.  Need fairly hefty tripod although I used to
shoot high speed Afga hand held (with pistol grip) for great evening color
shots.  One thing fer sure, when you hoist one of these puppies up, people
give you some room.

wayne the J
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Madelon Umlauf" <madelon@austincc.edu>
To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 12:02 PM
Subject: technical note on Diane Arbus photos


> 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
>
>
>