In Praise of the Square

 Gray's Mill, Graysville, Georgia

Rolliecord Vb, Ektachrome film

(Click to enlarge)

 

Maybe it's because my first "good" camera was a square-format Ricoh Supper 66 twin-lens reflex, or perhaps it's because my first great (and continuing) influence in photography was Fritz Henle, known as "Mr. Rollei" for his almost exclusive use of the square format Rolleiflex TLR during the most productive years of his life. (He later switched to the Rolleiflex SL66 single-lens reflex, but it was also square format.) 

Whatever the reason, I've always loved the square format, and I've always loved the twin-lens reflex because one must look down into the viewfinder instead of holding the camera at eye-level and looking through it.

 Many photographers would consider those two things to be drawbacks.  But I find that composing to fill the square makes composition easier. And looking down into the top of the camera to see the viewing screen seems to help me shut out the rest of the world and concentrate on what I see on the screen.

Another thing I like about TLRs is that most of them don't have interchangeable lenses. That greatly simplifies things, because instead of trying to be prepared for everything, I can look for subjects the camera is suited to handle. That is by no means as limiting as it might sound –- in fact, it's actually liberating rather than limiting. Maybe that's why my square format photographs often seem to convey a special sense of serenity

Henry County Courthouse, McDonough, Georgia

Yashica 24 TLR, Fujichrome 100 film

 

It's true that with my Fuji cameras (and many others) I can set the camera to shoot in square format. And i can even pull out the rear screen so that I can look down to compose a photograph. But for me, it's just not the same.

I don't shoot much square format these days, because twin-lens reflexes (and medium format single-lens reflex cameras which shoot square images, such as Hasselblads and Bronicas) are film cameras and film is expensive. But every once in a while I load a roll of Fujichrome in my Minolta Autocord and take it along with me just in case I find something that grabs my eye and says "Shoot that with your TLR."

Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2021

I post three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone 

Tags: Dave Jenkins, photography, Ricoh Super 66, Fritz Henle, Rolleiflex, TLR, twin-lens reflex, SL66, Hasselblad, Bronica, Minolta Autocord, Fuji, Fujichrome, Graysville, Georgia, Rolleicord Vb, Ektachrome, Yashica 24, Henry County, McDonough Coourthouses