Wollensak 101mm Raptar lens on lens plate: Lieutenant Alan Queale, Official Photographer, BCOF

Place Asia: Japan
Accession Number AWM2020.448.1.6
Collection type Technology
Object type Optical equipment
Physical description Alloy, Brass, Glass, Steel
Maker Wollensak
Place made United States of America: New York, Monroe County, Rochester
Date made c 1946
Conflict British Commonwealth Occupation Force, 1946-1952 (Japan)
Description

Wollensak Raptar 101mm f=4.5 lens mounted with a Wollensak Rapax synchromatic shutter with a connector bi post flash mounted on a square lens plate for use with the 2x3 Speed Graphic camera. The shutter is labelled "Rapax / SYNCHROMATIC / MADE BY WOLLENSAK ROCHESTER, U.S.A.", while the lens is labelled "WOLLENSAK 101 MM f/4.5 RAPTAR No 870098". There are a number of levers and mounts around the circumference of the shutter assembly. They are (from left to right) : a bi post flash connector; a selector with four positions on it for selecting various types of flashes, and an off button (for synchronised flash work); a diaphragm indicator arrow; a release lever; a cable release screw mounting; and a setting lever.

The lens is stored in its original Wollensak box.

History / Summary

Alan Queale was born in Boonah, Queensland on 16 November 1908 and enlisted in June 1940. Under service number QX6717 he served in the Middle East with 2/1 and 2/2 Ordnance Stores as a technical storeman from September 1940 until January 1943, reaching the rank of sergeant.

During his time in the Middle East, he used a simple Ensign Double 8 still camera to privately produce six albums of photographic portraits and studies of buildings, a format he would reproduce when he worked in Japan. Arriving back in Australia, he was transferred to 2 Base Ordnance Depot in Melbourne before being transferred to Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) in March 1944, serving with them in New Guinea (an experience he found "rubbish"). He applied for a transfer to the Military History Section in July 1945, where he worked with No 2 Military History Field Team in New Guinea until February 1946.

Queale worked with the Military History Section (MHS) from 1946-47 in Japan, photographically documenting the activities of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) and aspects of Japanese life post-war, including the demilitarisation of the country, before being made the Officer in Charge (with the rank of lieutenant) of the MHS from February 1947 to March 1949. His photos from his service in the Middle East as well as Japan are searchable under his name on the AWM database.

After he was discharged from the Army in August 1949, Queale continued to take and collect photographs, and became well-known in Queensland for his work as an amateur historian and collector of art and artifacts. His work is notable for its unusually fine aesthetic values, as well as for what it reveals about Australia’s view of Asia in the immediate post-war period.

This Wollensak 101mm lens mounted on a Wollensak Rapax synchromatic shutter which was in turn mounted to a steel lens plate designed to fit the quick change lens mechanism on a Graflex 2 ¼ inch x 3 ¼ inch Miniature Speed Graphic press camera. All the user had to do was slide the lens release upwards and replace the lens.

This synchromatic shutter was designed to be linked to the flash mechanism via the bipost flash connector.