Gowlandflex

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California glamour and celebrity photographer Peter Gowland (1916-2010) was also very active as a camera tinkerer and inventor throughout his career, addressing the unusual needs of his own and other photographers' work. He claimed he had invented 30 cameras,[1] which included aerial models and lightweight view cameras.[2] But he is certainly best known for the Gowlandflex large-format TLR, and in particular the Gowlandflex 4x5 Glamour Camera.

For magazine-cover and pinup work, a negative of 4x5 inches was considered standard (as retouching often was done directly on the film). But having originally used a Rolleiflex, Gowland wanted to preserve the mobility and continuous viewing of 6x6cm twin-lens cameras, as he often worked outdoors and on beaches in California's mild weather.[3] Thus the Gowlandflex was constructed—evidently in Gowland's own home workshop—in lightweight aluminum and at 8 pounds[4] can conceivably be handheld.[5]

The large spacing between viewing and taking lens inevitably leads to significant parallax error, but later[6] Gowlandflex models raise and lower the viewing lensboard using a simple ramp-shaped cam, to correct the viewing frame while focusing. This was one of several refinements over what was said to be 30 years of small improvements.[7]

Two variants of the Gowlandflex include an immense 8x10 version, of which only seven were actually sold[7], and the Wide Angle Gowlandflex (which is twin-lensed but lacks an actual reflex mirror).[8]

Between all of his designs Gowland claimed to have sold 1,500 cameras[9] with 600 of these being the most-popular model the 4x5 TLR.[1]

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 See an archived page about his cameras from the still-active Alice & Peter Gowland Photography.
  2. Only 21 of these models were sold to others, according to the 2023 "about" page at PeterGowland.com.
  3. Typical of this style is one July, 1948, Popular Photography cover by Gowland of a favorite model, Pat Hall.
  4. For the "30th-anniversary" model announced in 1985 this had been further cut to 6 pounds (December, 1985, Popular Photography page 108); via Google Books.
  5. Photographer Philippe Halsman had worked with Fairchild to create prototype 4x5 Fairchild-Halsman TLRs; but available images suggest they were likely quite heavy.
  6. A 1968 visit from Popular Photography's Norman Rothschild indicated this was then still a new feature (Vol. 63, No. 5; pages 132-133).
  7. 7.0 7.1 These details are from the Cameras Page of the Alice & Peter Gowland Photography site, although no cameras are currently available.
  8. A camera of this design appears at Barry Toogood's TLR-Cameras.com
  9. Stated in his 2010 obituary in the LA Times.

Links