The book, Revelations, by Diane Arbus (1923-1971), is comparable to a perfect novel. Her images are always so haunting and quite moving. Every time I look at Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, NY 1970 or Russian Midget Friends in a living room on 100th street, NY 1963, my bones turn to rigatoni and elbow macaroni. What I mean is, they feel all hollowed out. The work of Diane Arbus simply dissolves my heart. I am an Alka Seltzer dropped in water when it comes to Diane. Her early forays into photography were using 35mm, but her most famous work was done using a Rolleiflex 3.5F TLR with 75 mm F3.5 Planar, a medium format twin-lens reflex camera. This camera is an absolute beaut! It was on display at the Revelations exhibition at the Met in New York two years ago, which I flew specifically to New York to see, and boy was I not disappointed. The exhibition was enormous, for one thing. After the museum my girlfriend and I went downtown to the Pickle Guys, for some very tasty pickles.
Rollei was a German company founded in 1920 by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke. Their very first cameras were the “Heidoscop” and “Rolleidoskop.” They continue to make 35mm and medium-format cameras.
