portrait taken with a Thambar 9cm lens and screw-mount Leica
Toronto. Like all hobbies and professions, photography had fads from time to time. The late part of the 18oos and earlier part of last century, pictorialism took over for a time. Proponents of pictorialism used photography as a basis for art, including using a soft focus approach.
By the time Leitz retailed its Thambar lens, the fad was almost over. A few of the lens were made during and after WW2, but the total Thambars made was less than 3,000. The lens used uncorrected peripheral rays to create the out of focus look. Stopping down sharpened the image. A special silver central spot filter blocked out the sharper central rays. Unfortunately, use demanded varying the aperture, the scene, and the special filter making it difficult to take a great shot.
I bought my lens used at Downtown camera who sell one today (by special order and with a bayonet mount rather than the old screw mount).
While the Thambar was a failure in sales, it is in high demand by collectors of Leica lenses. You can see in my photograph that the lens focussed on the edge of the chair, not the child’s face as intended. An interesting lens, but hard to use. It was brought back briefly in a bayonet mount and very high price.
Note: The post title is a riff on “Funny Girl“, a story about Fanny Brice that was offered in various ways (stage, movie, musical, etc.). Here is Barbra Streisand singing the namesake title song, “Funny Girl“.
