analog days
One thing I notice when I take out the Polaroid is that people tend to stare. Oh, they stare anyway. Especially when I take pictures of insignificant things like billboards or doorways, or when I ram my camera into the bud of a flower. That one always elicits stares. But the Polaroid takes it to a whole other level. I imagine it’s the clunkiness of it. I imagine it’s that most people don’t see many Polaroid cameras these days. I remember once at a gathering when I pulled the Polaroid out of my bag and someone exclaimed, as if in horror, “What is that?!”
Obviously that was not a gathering of photographers.
Yesterday I took the Polaroid out in an effort to make Sundays “analog days”. I have four film cameras that need some lovin’ including a Holga that I just had to have. The back of my refrigerator has been stacked with boxes of 600 film for almost a year now, with film that once again, I just had to have. With each purchase of 4 boxes or more I was afraid that it wasn’t enough. And now I’m pretty sure most of it has expired as of last month. A year ago, last month seemed so far away and I was positive that it would all be gone by now. So I panicked and bought more. And then more.
Most will tell you that the white borders is what makes a Polaroid special. And for a while I thought that was true. But this is 600 film, the kind where the bottom border is out of proportion to all the other sides. So I cropped the borders out. That may be sacrilegious, I’m not sure. But I like it. At least for now.
Besides what I like about polaroid film is that 70's look. I like the imperfections. I like the scruffiness of it.
Mon, July 6, 2009
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