After December 31st 2008, Polaroid will cease to manufacture any more instant film. Whilst there is probably going to be enough stock around to see you through 2009, it’s effectively the end of an era for this iconic approach to photography.
Remember when you first saw how a Polaroid works? It was like something magical - a picture that you can hold in your hands appears before your very eyes. And then you began waving it in the air in the belief that it makes it develop quicker, though apparently it has no effect whatsoever. This was just a social habit that began to be passed on through generations as the thing to do when waiting for your picture to pop.
But of course it wasn’t just about the process. Polaroids have an aesthetic that is all their own, from the way it handles light to the actual iconic 600 film with its big chunky white border at the bottom of the picture, a functional thing that housed the magical appearing fluids, yet gave space for people to write their thoughts, messages and notes.
Though today we live in a digital world and the relatively expensive Polaroid film was never going to survive in a super cheap digital landscape. Polaroid is continuing to innovate with its Pogo Zinc (inkless) based printers, of which I’m now a proud owner. And yes seeing a little photo pop out of this thing is still kind of magical, though there’s now no need to wave the print in the air for it to develop, not that there actually was back then anyway.
There’s something about Polaroid that is very dear to people’s hearts, and like most things you only realise what you miss when they’ve been taken away. Below I’ve listed a few things for fans of this wonderful magical object.
Poladroid - fun Polaroid image maker - even lets you shake the film!
Andy Warhol Polaroid retrospective
Exposure plug-in for Photoshop - film simulator includes Polaroid settings
Polaroid tag cluster on Flickr
The Home of Instant Photography
Polaroid books and more - via my online shop
Besides the process, and the aesthetic, there is a value we place on a Polaroid.
Negative and digital photography have meant cheap, infinite, reproductions. A Polaroid is expensive and difficult to reproduce and therefor has this “one of a kind” value to it. For this reason I think that, regardless of how people pretend not to care, Polaroids are shot sparingly with a great deal of attention paid to the subject and timing. It’s more precious than a 36 roll of Kodak Gold 200.
Samuel / 31/12/2008