Big Shots at the Golden Globes

Jodie Foster at the 2013 Golden Globes. Photograph by Lucas Michael for New York magazine. (Click to enlarge.)

New York magazine’s Culture Pages, where I am an editor, is a regular host to another crazed Polaroid enthusiast. For last week’s issue, Lucas Michael used his Polaroid Big Shot to photograph Benjamin Walker, co-star of Broadway’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Then, this past Sunday night, he took on a high-wire assignment: New York posted him backstage at the Golden Globe Awards, just offstage in an awkward hallway, where he shot nearly every celebrity as he or she stepped offstage. (Michael brought several key things to Los Angeles, including three Polaroid Big Shot cameras; a ton of Fuji color film and vintage Magicubes; and Roxanne Behr, the Culture Pages’ supernally awesome photo editor.) The slideshow is a blast, and here it is.  I especially like that we didn’t scan them as flat art; someone (Roxanne?) photographed the growing pile of prints and posted those images instead. Clever: it emphasizes the analog-ness of these little things, and also their quality as a physical object.

And I hate to mention the competition, but it’s too odd a coincidence not to cite: W magazine also had a Polaroid session going on at its pre-awards-show party. Anna Bauer worked with black-and-white film—dead-stock 4×5 Polaroid, most likely Polapan 100. Results here. I’m biased in favor of ours, of course, but hers look nice too.