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Polaroids from New Mexico
I spent a week in New Mexico with Lisa and her family in March. While I was there, I took nearly 100 polaroids, using an automatic Polaroid 600 and a “manual” Polaroid Land 100 camera.
I finally uploaded my best photos to Flickr. Here’s a slideshow of my New Mexico polaroids.
Created with flickrSLiDR.
No More Polaroid Film?!?!?!?!?!
I am speechless. It kind of feels like I’ve been kicked in the gut. Polaroid is stopping production of all its film. No more Polaroid film.
When Polaroid users pulled a picture out of their cameras, an image would slowly appear before their eyes. Now, like the process in reverse, the image of the Polaroid instant camera — dimming for years — has finally gone black.Polaroid, based in Waltham, Mass., is shutting down factories in the United States and abroad as the company abandons the technology that made the instant photo possible, the Boston Globe reported yesterday. The company will cease production of its film by next year.
The artsy, instantly gratifying Polaroid images, reeking of processing chemicals, have finally been done in by endless Flickr Web pages full of digital images, flawlessly produced by cameras that do not require film, emulsion or anything bigger than a shirt pocket to carry them around.
I don’t know what to do. How can I amass a 60-year supply of Polaroid film within the next year?
I take exception to blaming Flickr for the demise of Polaroid. If anything, I think Polaroid’s had a revival from Flickr; the site even hosts an annual ‘Roid Week in honor of the film.
This is an insane idea: could there be a grassroots movement to save Polaroids? Is that as futile as saving 8-track production? To me, this feels like the first time the grasp of technology has killed something I love. I’m being way melodramatic right now.
SavePolaroids.com is available. Just sayin’.
2008 DCist Exposed Exhibition
One of my photos has been selected to appear in this year’s DCist.com Exposed Exhibition of DC-area photographers. The photo at right, creatively titled “trumpet,” was taken at local jazz club HR-57.
The exhibition opens at a Penn Quarter gallery on March 7, where this photo will appear (for sale) with selections from several dozen other folks. I’m pretty excited, as this is my first exhibition in a couple of years. I’ll share more info as it becomes available!
Polaroid Zen
For the last four months or so, I’ve been using an old Polaroid 660 as my only camera. My two-year-old digital camera can no longer focus, and I don’t want to pay for both 35mm film, processing, and putting the photos onto a CD. I’m also lazy and want instant gratification.
My goal with the Polaroids has been to capture scenes as I would with a normal camera, and let the nature of a Polaroid photo add its own thing to what I frame for the shot.
I just added what I think are my favorite Polaroids to date – and I have a 3” high stack of them on my desk. You can see them at my polaroid page.
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