This sleeve with 4×5″ negatives are all Joel selfies, upon closer examination, there are only two poses, and Joel created different “looks” of these negatives.
It’s only a guess that these are circa 1971, but could of course be a few years later. Joel is 50 in 1971.
The camera Joel is holding is Koni-Omega Rapid, a camera released after 1964 and based on the Simmons design of 1953. Joel shoots 120 or 220 roll film on this camera (2 1/4″ wide film). It was not possible to shoot Polaroid pack on this camera.
Camera came in few versions, the diagram below is just for reference of the typical controls. (Koni-Omega, Rapid, all black.)
The vast majority of 120 film size negatives that Joel photographed, and shown in the few preceding blog posts, are shot with this camera/lens combination. The 90mm lens is super sharp and gives a wide angle feel on this film format.
I’m only showing few sample from this particular negative sleeve from the Jessica Fong Dardis Collection.
Two unprocessed ones and two more processed negatives to show the range. I don’t believe Joel actually printed these with these negatives. There’s a clear clip artifact showing at the top.
Next two negative prints are just a variation of the above negative.
There are few more negatives in this slide, all falling somewhere in between these examples.
Few more image of this particular camera as they showed up in my Flickr feed.
Since this camera was only available after 1964, it brings the questions, which 120 roll film camera was Joel using from 1959 on ? Not sure if we’ll ever know the answer for sure. Unless he used the original 1953 Simmons design, and upgraded later.
Cheers !
Finding Joel Pahl Dardis 