Have there been any famous Beauty camera users?
I wondered whether anyone celebrated or popular had every used a Beauty camera? The answer appears to be - NO - but for one lady. I expect the vast majority of people have never heard of Mabel Cetu ... I certainly had not.
Mabel's claim to fame is that she was the first African woman Press Photographer. Her appointment was immortalised in the October 1956 issue of a monthly South African publication called "Zonk! African People's Pictorial".
Mabel can be seen on the front cover using a TLR camera. Inside the magazine there's an article about her engagement. It's somewhat self-congratulatory of Zonk! magazine and the photographic editor's project to train a "woman" to be a press photographer. Of Mabel it reports that she had previously been a midwife and proved to be good at taking pictures.
Whilst wishing to remain neutral on political issues, it appears that Mabel Cetu has been plucked from obscurity through academic studies aimed at the inclusion of historically marginalized groups in a broader canon. I confess, I'm am only interested the camera, which can be seen on the inner pages to be a Beautyflex D. I'm slightly astonished that the Beauty travelled all the way from Tokyo, Japan to Port Elizabeth, South African, and was considered to be professional quality.
