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| Landscape, Loss [of Sleep] and Robert Moses
February 13, 2008
Fading
Izzy the dog; Los Angeles, CA
This is totally last week's news, which should give you some indication on how behind I am on everything these days, but Polaroid has announced that they will stop producing classic instant film as soon as they have made enough of it to last through 2009. I guess this does not impact peel-back film that much, as other companies such as Fuji make compatible versions. But for regular instant film for cameras such as the SX-70, I guess we will have to rely on a different company starting to produce the packs. This happened with the Time-Zero film, which is made as a specialty item now- and is priced accordingly.
The best thing about instant film is, of course, the instant gratification. Yes, digital lets you see an image right after it had been taken, however the effect is different. My guess is that the first is a tangible product while the latter is really just a representation. You can touch a Polariod, watch it develop and even manipulate the image while it processes (for better or for worse). With the tangible, you are much less apt to throw it away if it's not perfect. In fact, you might pass it on to the person whose image you captured. In that sense, I have always felt that instant photographs had the potential for a much more personal photographic exchange.
I spent a lot of time with my SX-70 this summer with varying degrees of success. I found that it worked best when I took medium to close range shots of people and objects, mostly in bright sunlight or surrounded by brilliant colors. Once I figured that out, I began to build a small archive of family members, occasional landscapes and close-ups of little things that now, when I sort through them, really encapsulate many of the happy experiences of summer 2007. A few weeks ago I scanned all of the images in at a high resolution, then sent them out to be printed as 5x5's. I really like how many of them came out and am now going to test out some 8x8 prints, though the graininess might be a bit much.
But mostly, now I am trying to brainstorm how to accumulate as much Polaroid 600 film as possible without spending our entire mortgage pig in the process. Is it worth it to buy the film in bulk now? Or is it simply time to spend some quality time with the film while it lasts...and then just say goodbye to fun but slightly expensive medium?
Posted by callalillie at February 13, 2008 11:48 AM | Visual Musings
Posted by: JPR at February 13, 2008 1:58 PM
Who is that dog?
She should be "best in show"
We want to see more of her.
Posted by: PGR at February 13, 2008 3:03 PM
Who is that dog?
She should be "best in show"
We want to see more of her.
Posted by: PGR at February 13, 2008 3:04 PM
I say horde up! Get as much of that instant film as you can. And figure out how to store it so it doesn't go rancid on you. Owning piles of unusable film would be so much more hearbreaking than not having any in the first place.
Posted by: THW at February 13, 2008 4:58 PM
I just bought a bunch of i-Zone film on ebay for an art project/experiment on nervousness. I am definetly stocking up. I keep it in my fridge and it seems to be ok.
Posted by: Vickie at February 13, 2008 8:35 PM
