We’ve already posted about an SX-70 necklace, and now 
here’s a 600-style camera, with the flip-up flash—and it actually flips up, on a little hinge. Offered at $47.99 by Ark Clothes, a company (based in Thailand) that sells retro clothes and accessories. Unfortunately, it’s a little late for Mother’s Day, but I’m sure if your mom is a Polaroid freak it will be appreciated later on.
The Art Newspaper is reporting on a big crowdsourcing program that’s getting underway to document the history of Polaroid photography. The writeup is a little vague and tangled (says your obsessive editor, who can’t read anything without a pencil in hand), but it sounds like the plan is to ask artists who’ve shot Polaroid film to pull it all out of storage and take a fresh look at it, then submit their best work. From the story:
An ambitious collaboration to document the achievements of the now defunct Polaroid Corporation is being made possible thanks to an initial grant from the Land Fund. The Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP) and the scientific college Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) intend to develop a touring exhibition and a series of publications, produced in conjunction with Thames and Hudson.
“This is a call for submissions. It demands the best of the best material. This is not a community project, we want the stuff that can hold its own against the art of the period—and it was a long period, from 1950 to 1990,” says William Ewing, the former director of the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, which held a major portion of the Polaroid collection until its recent dispersal as a result of bankruptcy sales (see The Art Newspaper, March 2011, p59).
He adds that they’ll be looking to document the scientific and industrial aspects of Polaroid work as well. That sounds a lot like the mission of the Polaroid Collection itself, which includes lots of microscopy photos and the like, and I’m happy to see someone picking up the ball there. I should add that Deborah Douglas, of the MIT Museum, is one of the figures behind this project, and she (and the collection she curates) has also been a great help on this little book of mine.
Tulips in Union Square, photographed May 7, 2011, on Fujifilm's 4x5 instant film.
Official word from Fujifilm’s rep: The large-format instant film (4×5 size) is out of production. The color (FP-100C45) is sold out at the wholesale level, and b/w (FP-3000B45) is nearly so. The much more widely used 3×4 size is selling well, and production continues.
This is a major bummer, since Fuji was the last producer of large-format instant film, and I plan to stockpile as much of this superb product as I can. BUT…
A post on the Facebook page of the 20×24 Studio suggests that the format may not be dead after all. John Reuter (who runs 20×24) and some partners are making serious moves toward producing 8×10 and even possibly 4×5 peel-apart film. In his responses to the comments, Reuter seems to be saying that the first round will be made with his dead-stock Polaroid material, as a test to see whether the market is big enough to support a freshly coated production run. I, myself, am guessing that this market exists, and will support even the high unit price required at this small scale. (A few months back, Bob Crowley of New55 was proposing $6 retail per sheet for 4×5 positive-negative material. Expensive but not outlandish, given what it costs to send a 4×5 negative to the lab these days.)
Short version: If you have an 8×10 Polaroid processing rig, or a Model 545 or 545i camera back, don’t throw it out. You may be able to feed it again soon.
Those folks were kidding a couple of weeks ago, but a design outfit called ADR Studio has done a little design concept for an actual camera that looks just like the Polaroid-striped Instagram icon—and prints on the spot. With a white tab at the bottom of the photo, no less.
It’s really just a design concept, with a lot of the details ill-thought-out (four teeny ink tanks in that thing? It’d have a capacity of about three photos per cartridge). And it ignores the fact that the snapshot camera as an independent device is on its way out. Unless you’re getting serious about photography, your cameraphone is more than adequate, which explains the billion-dollar-ness of Facebook.
Looks fun, though. It would not be a bad thing for Instagram (or, now, Facebook) to make and distribute as a corporate gift.
Edwin Land, circa 1981.
It’s Edwin Land’s 103rd birthday, and here he is, in a couple of Polaroid portraits. The distance shot is outside the Osborn Street laboratories in Cambridge; as for the closeup, I’m not sure who the other guy is, but I really hope he doesn’t have that tie anymore.
Land and colleague. (Click to enlarge.)
The dates are educated guesses. I put the shot on Osborn Street around 1981, because although I can’t quite ID that car in the background, it’s a GM product of about 1979 or 1980, and Land left Polaroid in 1982. The other photo might be a little earlier, because the reagant spread in the corners is imperfect, suggesting that this was test film. (Maybe a Time Zero test? Anyone know?)
Also born on May 7: Tchaikovsky, Johnny Unitas, Eva Peron.
Just back from a visit with Eelco Wolf, a longtime Polaroid marketing executive who later served as head of the Magnum photo agency. He’s got a photo on his desk that made me laugh and gasp, all at once, when I saw it. Here’s a cameraphone snap:
Fidel, con Polaroid. (Click to enlarge.)
There’s a mystery here, though: Who took this picture? Eelco is researching it, and can’t figure it out. Obviously someone brought an SX-70 to Cuba in the early seventies, presumably on a diplomatic trip, but the trail ends there. There’s a signature, but it’s hard to read (looks like “Grodebart,” maybe?). There’s also an agency stamp on the back, reading ” Copyright / National Photographic Society / All rights reserved / Not for publication / Negative no.” It’s missing both year and negative number.
So, anyone who comes across this and can offer clues: Name that photographer! Nominees in the comments, please.
Update: Found him! Read this followup post.
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