When the digital camera came along, the long-reigning king of photographic convenience, the Polaroid camera, was dethroned. It would take another decade or so for digital technology to so rob the point-and-shoot Polaroid of its market share that it effectively died as a consumer product – and this month we mourn its passing. The last roll of instant Polaroid film will roll off the line sometime very soon, though aficionados will never admit that it became obsolete. The Polaroid’s funky colors and fisheye close-ups could create the tamest of family snapshots or the weirdest of pop art pieces (Warhol loved his Polaroid camera, and for years snapped pants-down crotch-shots of any visitors to his Factory who would submit to his prying lens).
It’s a technology responsible for a million unintentional masterpieces, most certainly lost to time and trash and garage sales; those that are found are treasured, and sometimes end up in the pages of magazines like Found or on this very website. Peppered throughout this blog are some of our favorite Polaroids, courtesy Found magazine:
A few weeks ago, the New York Times eulogized the Polaroid’s passing poignantly:
Mystery clung to each impending image as it took shape, the camera conjuring up pictures of what was right before one’s eyes, right before one’s eyes. The miracle of photography, which Polaroids instantly exposed, never lost its primitive magic. And what resulted, as so many sentimentalists today lament, was a memory coming into focus on a small rectangle of film.
Glossy talismans in unreal colors, as ephemeral as breath on glass, they wreaked all the more havoc with our emotions for being so unassuming and commonplace.
Ultimately, though, it’s the populist tradition that lends the demise of Polaroid instant film its poignancy: the power of all those ordinary pictures to salvage forgotten lives — and the finality of the moment after which the mass of billions of snapshots preserving millions of anonymous instants of happiness or private consequence ceases to grow and, with us, heads toward oblivion.
But don’t cry for Polaroid — like the VW Beetle of old, they’ll be found on the shelves of used camera shops for decades to come, and like fine wine, they only grow more funky and quirky with age.
Finally, here are a few 50s-era found Polaroids of my own, rescued from a neglected pile of photographs found at my grandparents’ house.
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The picture of the woman at the beach is awesome! It seems so relaxing and looks like something an artist would paint. Who is the woman?
posted by Tricia on 1-6-2009 at 11:52 am
@Tricia –
That’s my grandmother!
posted by Ransom Riggs on 1-6-2009 at 12:08 pm
The unfortunate thing about the Polaroid cameras becoming more funky on the antique store shelves is that they can’t be used. Anything using roll-type Polaroid film has been obsolete for years. 600 is still available, and SX-70 has been gone for a little while. I’m not sure when Captiva or Spectra went, but they’re gone. Oddly enough, the peel-apart kind is still made by Fuji, so most of the ones from the middle 60′s to middle 70′s will be the last ones that can be used. I think that the pictures from the peel-apart kind were always better anyway. Fuji also makes an instant film for its home market that can be used in the old Kodak instant cameras with some adaptation.
One of my current favorite film cameras was also a Warhol favorite-the 35mm Minox. I gave one to my brother for Christmas, and ended up buying one for myself. I found while testing his that I had badly missed shooting film pictures, and the Minox is a wonderful and perfect little machine. When it works. They’re known to be somewhat unreliable.
Barring some adaptation to use sheet film or 120, a Polaroid camera can’t be as fun as other old cameras. With a little work, anything that uses 620, 828 and some others can still be used. The very common 35mm and 120 are still easy. I’ve bought several cheap 35mm cameras off eBay and thrift stores lately that are top quality. All have returned excellent pictures, but I wouldn’t have to be upset if they were to be lost or destroyed. I’ve often thought that these excellent but cheap cameras would be perfect for small children-good pictures without the worry about cost. There are digital cameras for kids, but they just aren’t up to the quality of even a disposable 35mm. Nothing but a phone camera in a stand-alone shell. I think that kids today are deprived without cameras and tape recorders. Those were two of my creative favorites as a child. I may have to hoard for my future kids.
I am a nerd, and I’m ashamed.
posted by Dave on 1-6-2009 at 1:04 pm
I remember once seeing an art exhibit of Polaroid pictures that had been manipulated while “drying”. Really amazing stuff, astonishing colors. A pixel’s just a pixel, but good chemicals…ah!
posted by VM on 1-6-2009 at 1:49 pm
I’m going to assume you meant NOT ashamed, Dave. Cuz I don’t think you should be.
posted by BassMan on 1-6-2009 at 2:07 pm
@Dave:
You’re not alone. :)
At my college, we have a photography teacher that refuses to use digital cameras. He teaches film only.
I absolutely fell in love.
Love my Nikon D40x, but film has my heart!
posted by Casey S. on 1-6-2009 at 2:16 pm
I remember that ‘kid in the yard by the house’ pic from a M_F contest of some sort many months ago. It still sorta freaks me out. Probably partially because the kid is a dead ringer for me at that age.
posted by EV on 1-6-2009 at 2:31 pm
I bought a Mamiya Film Camera which I had as a kid (about 35years ago) but was stolen, I came across a similar camera in a used camera store and am shooting film only. I don’t want to switch as long as I can hold out with the 120 film. Love Film and it’s colours.
posted by brovox on 1-6-2009 at 3:33 pm
Casey, I’m with you. My digital Canon rocks and I love it, but I learned on film and I still want a B&W lab in my house one day. The good thing about the digital revolution is that it’ll be easy to get great projectors, etc, cheap.
There’s something about watching that photo develop in front of your eyes, whether on a Polaroid or in a pan of developer that digital can’t touch.
posted by Lindsey on 1-6-2009 at 3:53 pm
Wow, I had a mamiya-sekor (?) the same time and it was stolen too. My dad said it was a real popular camera. It took awesome pictures. I still have a film one now, but the digital is sooo easy…
posted by coffeegirl on 1-6-2009 at 5:59 pm
At my wedding only a couple years ago, in lieu of a traditional guest book, we had each guest take a polaroid pic of themselves, stick it in a book we had there and write on the page. The reception also served as a kind of gonig-away party, as we moved two months later.
We love looking through that book – such great memories of little snapshots of time.
A friend of ours who is an artist drew feet below the picture of him and his girlfriend with a ball and chain on his leg. Quite prophetic – they were engaged just a few months later!
posted by Dawn on 1-6-2009 at 8:29 pm