Rolleiflex Captures Clay Clobbering Liston

Neil Liefer photographed Cassius Clay’s knockout of Sonny Liston in their 1965 rematch in Lewiston, Maine, on Ektachrome 64. Liefer was shooting for Sports Illustrated. Without the pressures of going to press in the morning, Liefer shot color film in his Rolleiflex. Writer David Schronauer tells the story behind the photograph, and the sports photographers who were present that night trying to capture the fight on film:

http://thevisualculture.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-mad-men-rewrote-sports-photo.html

Neil was only one of a number of sports photographers shooting Rolleiflexes that night. Here’s a crop from another of Liefer’s photographs from that night:

Weegee shows Kubrick his Rolleiflex.

The Rolleiflex is inside a “blimp,” which makes it quiet to operate on a Hollywood soundstage.

On Route 66

Rolleiflexes can be seen in the 1960 television series, Route 66. In “Layout At Glen Canyon,” a photographer shoots a fashion spread with a Rolleiflex. Who mounted the lens shade on the viewing lens?

That’s no way to treat a Xenotar.

Self Portrait (2008) by my friend Pablo Kolodny

(Source: Flickr / salvajegrapa)

Rollei Life, by Miki

Miki shows us how it’s done, with one hand.

http://www.rollei-life.com

(Source: Flickr / rocamiki)

Rollei Life, by Miki

untitled (2011) by Miki.

Find Miki online at rollei-life.com.

(Source: Flickr / rocamiki)

Rolleiflex Lore-Master

Self-Portrait (2008) by Carlos Freaza.

In the Beginning

In the beginning was Reinhold Heidecke. Scripture tells us that Herr Heidecke conceived the Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera, and that he and Paul Franke brought the concept to market. Their company, Franke & Heidecke, started manufacturing Rolleiflexes in the 1920s, and continued to produce Rolleiflexes for most of the Twentieth Century.

In 1948 Victor Hasselblad, consumed with the heretical notion that one lens was better than two, produced the Hasselblad single-lens reflex camera. Postwar photography was cleaved in two for the rest of the century.

Hasselbladophile Q.G. de Bakker reports that Herr Heidecke and Victor Hasselblad met at the 1954 Photokina in Cologne. The world did not fall from its axis. Hasselblad invited Heidecke to visit him in Sweden. They toured the Hasselblad factory in Göteborg, then went to Råö to play with their cameras.

http://www.hasselbladhistorical.eu/HS/HSHmeetsR.aspx

“Heidecke and Hasselblad are said not to have considered each other as competition, but rather as fellow engineers, sharing a common passion. The fact that the two gentlemen embarked on a Hasselblad vs Rollei photo shoot - though just as a bit of fun - might however already begin to suggest different. Nevertheless, Hasselblad and Heidecke remained good friends, and are even said to have agreed that Hasselblad would never make a twin lens reflex medium format camera, nor Rollei a single lens reflex medium format camera.” — Q.G. de Bakker

http://www.hasselbladhistorical.eu/HS/HSHmeetsR.aspx

Melanie with Rolleiflex (2006) by Sanders McNew.

Natalie Portman shoots a Rolleiflex. (Where the Heart Is, 2000)

“Rolleiflex is the working tool of so many news magazine and other professional photographers.  Their reasons for owning and using this finest of cameras, offers an excellent guide to you in the selection of your camera.  First, its ability to shoot quickly … in rapid fire order if necessary … by a simple flip of the crank. Second, its precise ground glass focussing which insures getting each picture exactly as you see it, and want it.  Third, its unequalled optical system, and automatic parallax compensation, which assures sharpest, on-the-button negatives or transparencies.  And finally, its unequalled versatility … the right camera for any picture requirement, in black and white or color.  Be sure to see Rollei cameras at your dealers today; or write for literature.”

tumblrbot asked: ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Dinobots of course.  :-D