October 3, 2008

I miss this film, truly I do...


I know I can jimmy rig my SX-70 to take Polaroid 600, but its just not the same. I loved buying outdated film and having that developer get all over EVERYTHING. And those flash bulbs? They could heat a house. Every time when they went off, the subject would immediately go from smiling to wincing from the bright explosion and unexpected heat from it. Polaroid is dead, but that is just a name. Instant film will continue on, just with a new name. So, whoever is going to carry the torch, please, hurry up, pick it up and start sprinting as I want my Time Zero back...

2 comments:

Tadd said...

John,
I love your photography and wish I had the patience you do to work with film. I agree that there is a big difference between film and digital, but wouldn't you agree that in some ways this film is reminiscent of the technological advances that lead to digital photography... instant viewing, infinite depth of field, take a picture of anything and see it immediately... I mean it isn't as elegant as this film by any means but the HP commercials where the guy takes a million pictures and prints them all simultaneously is sort of reminiscent?

Jonathan Canlas said...

ebay for an sx-70 camera. now again, you can't get time zero film, well you can, but expect to pay out the wazoo's for it and for it to be outdated which means that once the images pop out of the camera so does a bunch of sticky smelly toxic goo (developer). again, you can jimmy rig it so it takes polaroid 600 film which you can get anywhere (walmart).

and yes, i agree this is reminiscent of the digital advancements but to me the there is one HUGE difference. the fact that with polaroid you actually got something in hand. something tangible you can hold, something completely original and at the time could not easily be duplicated.