Carmel was made famous by photographer Diane Arbus' picture "Jewish Giant, taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y." in 1970, his back arched against the low ceiling of the apartment where he lived with his parents, when he was 34 years old, two years before his death. As the photo was taken, he joked: "Isn't it awful to have midget parents?" Arbus remarked on her photo, "You know how every mother has nightmares when she’s pregnant that her baby will be born a monster? … I think I got that in the mother’s face…" The photo inspired his cousin to make an audio documentary about him in 1999. A print of the photo was sold at auction for $421,000 ($ in current dollar terms) in 2007. A print of the photo was sold at a Christie's auction for $583,500 ($ in current dollar terms) in 2017.