On re-kindlement.

Getting back into Polaroids?

Most of my pictures are taken with something a bit like this.
It's a folding Polaroid SX-70 - this one looks a bit odd because of the Sonar arrangement on top. I prefer them without partly because it's not the most pleasant addition to the camera but also because when they fold down it's a hell of a lot smaller without it.

They're the most extraordinarily beautiful little SLR cameras. A genius of engineering and aesthetic.

Get one if you can.
They focus down to about 12 inches, and closer if you get the close-up kit, which means they're pretty much un-paralelled in the Polaroid world. The plasticy cameras you probably all had as kids rarely let you get in closer than about 3ft.
Sadly the film (SX-70 Time Zero) these pictures were taken on in is going the same way as Smilodon or Eohippus. But there is some good news. The Impossible Project has started making film to feed these beauties again, so there's no better time to re-kindle your love affair. The new colour film is heading in a similar direction to the original SX-70 film, so one day the prodigal son of Edwin Land may return to us all.

Future echo.

Hoax or reality?

I don't know what I thought as this strangely elegant, yet ultimately ugly camera jumped off the page. I hate the wood (or wood effect) but like the departure of Dubbya: it gives you hope. It has the classic lines of Polaroid, but we missed 20 good years of evolution - being served up only black plastic horrors and Spice Cams - so it's a hard vision to nail.

The twisting track that's defined Polaroid, or more broadly instant photography, has been a bizarre one in recent times. The news is guarded, the shadows lengthen. Will it, won't it? It's beginning to feel like a form of torturous pleasure. Maybe the horizon really is filled only with the limp blandness of digital, but that would be too horrible to imagine.

The church of Polaroid is a committed one; more vehemently protected and argued over than any other. And all that comes from entirely within her own ranks.

We have but one choice as I see it. Support anyone and everyone who is digging deep in their pockets to save the artform we love. If you don't like what they're doing, do something else.

I found this image here.