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. With In The New York Times Magazine: Polaroid
Posted Under: Consumed
PHOTO FINISH:
In a curious reversal, an innovation travels from the mainstream to the creative fringe — and disappears.
Traditionally, the role of those in the creative and cultural fringes is to lead: embracing unusual ideas, modes of expression and even products that gradually catch on with the mainstream and the masses. (By which time, of course, the fringe has moved on.) But in a recent reversal of the fringe-to-mass journey, many adventurously creative individuals have lately been in a state of rage, mourning and protest over the disappearance of a treasured tool — one that years ago reached, saturated and then passed out of the mainstream: Polaroid instant film.
Read the Consumed column in the March 16, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.
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NOTE: There is no Consumed column next Sunday, I took a week off. The column returns in the March 30 issue.
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Reader Comments
One of my favorite projects ever was making Polaroid transfers — which may be what you referred to in the piece as . It involved a contraption that had a place for a (photo) slide, a light, a lens, and then a place for a piece of Polaroid film. Expose the film, pull it out, wait just a little bit, peel it and then place the emulsion down on a piece of art paper. The chemicals would then migrate to the paper and adhere to it.
It was cool not only because of the unpredictability of the results, but also because of the specific color effects you could get. Color slide film is still the easiest way, imo, to get great photos saturated with color. Polaroid transfers were a way to take the color saturation and desaturate and alter it in fun and interesting ways. To play with lo-fi color.
The ultimate insult is that that look has now become a cheesy, bougie thing. Go to the art prints section of a Walmart or Target and you are sure to find a bouquet of flowers or a watering can sitting in tall grass Photoshopped to look like a Polaroid transfer.