What camera appears in the interview setup of "Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures"?
Asked 4/30/2016
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2 answers
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In the documentary Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, many interviews begin with a shot of a vintage camera photographing the interview subject. From memory, it appears to be used in a vertical orientation and has top-mounted controls and a large optical viewing screen. I’m trying to identify the camera model shown in those interview sequences. Based on Mapplethorpe’s known equipment and the camera’s general appearance, what is it most likely to be?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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Not having seen the film, or being able to find frames from the movie online, it's probably a Hasselblad 500 medium format camera:
Image source: Wikimedia commons, CC-BY-2.0
Mapplethorpe mostly used 2 cameras:
- Polaroid SX-70 until 1975
- Hasselblad 500 given to him by Sam Wagstaff, since 1975
Sources:
- Reframing Robert Mapplethorpe, Interview with Frances Terpak, curator of photographs at the Getty Research Institute
- Robert Mapplethorpe Collection at the Guggenheim Museum
- Mapplethorpe introduction by Richard Marshall
Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11924
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The most likely camera is a Hasselblad 500-series medium format camera.
That fits both the description and Mapplethorpe’s known gear: he is widely associated with two main cameras, a Polaroid SX-70 early on and a Hasselblad 500 from around 1975 onward. The Hasselblad’s waist-level finder gives it a large viewing screen on top, and its boxy medium-format design matches the vintage look you describe.
A Rolleiflex or Mamiya is also possible in a general sense, since Mapplethorpe is known to have used those as well, but based on the answers provided, the Hasselblad 500-series is the strongest identification.
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