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Abrupt Albania—sore legs, smelly clutch
A country both beautiful and wild, communal and contradictory. A coastline of glittering golden beaches and indulgence, and at the same time a land of harsh mountain ranges where bears will happily turn you into Ćevapi. A dark and rich history, a bright and even richer future. This, and much more besides, is Shqipëria.
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Bausch & Lomb Portrait Unar
I’ve got a unique optical layout and a silhouette so distinctive you can spot me from a distance. My construction is absurdly complex and notoriously temperamental. I’m a portrait virtuoso, lurking modestly in the shadows but towering over many of my peers like a smug diva. I am Unar. Portrait Unar.
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Dallmeyer 3B
They were forged early in 1873 and 1883 by old masters in faraway Dallmeyer. One remained in its island homeland, the other travelled to the Apennine Peninsula — yet both ultimately found their way into the hands of men with distinctly refined photographic taste. A scarcely believable century and a half later, they were reunited in the hands of a man of equally voracious optical appetite — and idleness most certainly does not await them.
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Hermagis Portrait
Like a broken-winged swan calls wistfully to a spring... I was so lonely for portraits. The birds are already screeching, the flowers will soon start pestering with their pollen and in the meantime, I’m frantically polishing brass for the season. One of these cherished glassy tubes is one that carries portraits right in its name and lineage. Here comes the illustrious Hermagis Portrait!
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Crown Anastigmat
Christmas time is a season of miracles and once in a while such wonders occur even in photography. While a burning camera didn’t appear to me, something equally remarkable occurred – the resurrection of a lens and its return from the brass Limbo.
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Greece in square
Marble-clad cities scorched white-hot by the sun. Picturesquely twisted trunks of ancient olive trees, steep canyons, roads seemingly leading from nowhere to nowhere. Countless shores washed by seas, pilgrimage sites hanging as if from the heavens, mountain villages blanketed in slate and the veil of time. None of this captures itself, and like Sisyphus, I pushed uphill not a boulder, but an equally heavy Rolleiflex SL66 - internally dubbed the ‘Greeceflex’ for this mission.
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Kodak Portrait
When you hold it in your hand, you can’t shake the feeling that despite its impressive 30.5 cm focal length, something still seems suspiciously absent. It gives off the vibe of being cobbled together by some ancient craftsman using a toilet paper roll and grandma’s reading magnifier. Still, folk wisdom stands: never judge a lens by how few optical elements it has.
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Wollensak Raptar
Lenses with razor-sharp rendering are a dime a dozen, and plenty of them can sketch out a pleasant bokeh. Finding a piece with real character—whatever that even means—can be tricky, but doable. But what about a specimen that bundles all of that together and adds a downright badass name on top? Step right up and behold the Raptar!
