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post a comment | posted Jul 13
I think this is my favorite polaroid I've ever taken. It was taken in the Dublin, Ireland airport while going up the escalator. I'm not sure I originally intended for the woman's legs to be in the top left until the very last second (while moving on the escalator, mind you). Looking through the viewfinder, I saw the legs and the pink bag, and I was just hoping that what I was seeing through the viewfinder of my Polaroid ProPack would translate to the actual photo, since it's not SLR. Also, on the ProPack the focus is manual, and there's no way of previewing what's in focus; rather, you have to guess how far away your subject is and set the lens to focus at that distance, hoping you got it right. Anticipation built as I tried to find a trash can out of the way so I could peel apart the film and throw away the negative. I had a bag on me I had to juggle, as well as figuring out a way to accurately time the development of the film and where to store the photo after drying, all the while in a very busy, very crowded, unfamiliar airport. But after 90 seconds of developing, as soon as I peeled it apart and saw the image, and it was a great feeling.
I don't mean any of that to sound arrogant or pretentious. I just think there's something about Polaroids that I've discovered recently, and that something explains why a lot of times I feel uncomfortable shooting it, despite my complete love for the medium. The medium, and to a certain extent much of film photography, is an uncomfortable medium to work with when you've learned all you know about photography in the digital age. While there is the coinciding of instantly being able to view the photo you just took, with digital a bad image can easily be deleted and nothing is lost, and in fact you gain more space to shoot another photo. With Polaroid, each shot is completely unique, and when it's a bad shot, you have one less shot you can take, with each shot costing you sometimes over $1, and the inevitable doom of Polaroid film always hovering over you like a dark cloud of despair. To top it off, most Polaroid cameras (including the 3 that I own) are not SLR, which means looking through the provided viewfinder is merely an approximation of what photo I'm taking. Also all the controls are automatic with only a small amount, if any, flexibility. And last but certainly not least, there's the fact that there's no photoshopping a bad photo into a good one with Polaroids. So every time I press that shutter, it's a flurry of excitement, fear, and apprehension as I wait for the photo to develop, never quite sure if what I had in mind will actually turn out at all.
And I think that's why I actually don't shoot Polaroid often. Part of me wants to be one of those people who would go out all day without a digital camera and only take a polaroid and be able to get a ton of amazing photos, or be like this photographer, Colie Parks, who practically shoots all Polaroid and gets beautiful results. But every time I get that kind of opportunity, I almost always chicken out and hide back in the comfort of taking my digital with me too, and then inevitably I don't use the Polaroid at all for any number of excuses I can think of. While in Europe, I only took 3 shots with my Polaroid the whole trip, despite having two whole packs of film available.
And yet, when I do use it, and I get a photo like the one above, I experience fully what everyone is talking about. It's something I can't quite put into words other than what I've already attempted to express so far. I suppose given my perspective of being so deep into digital photography, there was something beautiful about all these unsure elements and struggles and imperfections all coming together into a physical piece of art in my hand that I was actually completely happy with. It's a photo I would really like if I had just seen it randomly on flickr. And that's a good feeling.
Sometimes, digital is too easy.
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There's a new photo on A Collaboration of Days that we actually did before I left for Europe....
Which reminds me, Europe was awesome. I'll write more about it later. Suffice it to say, I have a ton of photos to work on. There's some photos from the wedding on my Flickr right now. I'll write about that whole experience more later.