From palmea. Portrait of the artist as a young… witch.
We asked a few Fotologgers to reminisce about their experiences shooting Polaroids. Here is the first installment, from Pamela Bannos, aka palmea. —along
Polaroid memories are bittersweet for me since they stopped supporting artists, went bankrupt, and then started discontinuing their best products.
[Ed. note: after bankruptcy in 2001, the company was sold and restarted, again as the Polaroid Corporation. link, Wiki.]
I’ve always thought that if they had gotten their team of researchers to think about digital media early on, they’d still be a profitable company that could afford to keep their early film products available. While the electronic companies started developing digital visual media Polaroid began putting photographs on stickers—sheesh.
My gripe continues with the research department: In 1987, while working on a commercial shoot, by my own carelessness I discovered that when I left the peeled off part of the test 4×5 Polaroid (Type 59) face down on some paper on a table, the image peeled off. This led me to do some experiments and I phoned the “Polaroid Technical Hotline” to ask if they could give me some pointers on the process. The technician I spoke with had no idea what I was talking about and advised me against doing that with their film. He stated that was not how their product was meant to be used. I thought that was even stranger when I realized that John Reuter (who ran the 20×24 Polaroid studio in New York City) had been making image transfers on that scale for a couple of years already at that point. Imagine my surprise when Polaroid phoned me later and asked me to conduct workshops demonstrating the process—and they began selling image transfer kits.
“Reverie, No. 1″ 1990. Polacolor Transfer, peeled and reversed SX-70, altered Tintype, on Rives BFK paper. 17″ x 11″
In the 1980s the corporation had an artist program where they would acquire art works that incorporated Polaroid film in exchange for Polaroid products. If your work was selected you had the choice of receiving $150 per picture or the equivalent in Polaroid film. By the late 80s, they had come to appreciate the ways artists were adapting the Polaroid products to their own uses. The corporation acquired a number of my pictures at that time and I had to buy a new refrigerator to store the 56 boxes of Type 59 and then Type 809 they shipped me. I still have a couple of boxes that expired in April 1990!
Over the years I’ve worked with and have loved many of their products. We were using Polachrome slide film in graduate school right when it came out in 1985. Those slides still look good today—strange metallic, fragile surface and all. And I acquired an 8×10 Polaprocessor and a Polaprinter to convert 35mm slides into 8×10 Polaroids—Type 809 film, $15 a sheet in 1990. And I loved experimenting with studio strobe and Time-Zero film on my “next generation” SX-70 Sonar. Ahh, I miss the 80s. Today, I still shoot and teach with Type 55 positive/negative film. When they stop making that 4×5 film, as far as I’m concerned it will all be over.
Studio strobe SX-70 self-portrait, 1986
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10 Responses to “Polaroid in Process”
jdiggle @ 2007-03-14 01:00:32 PM says:
i wonder what has become of all those artist’s poloroids!
now that would be some show….
(fascinating stuff P, thanks)
palmea @ 2007-03-14 01:37:12 PM says:
The international archive was once in England, then in Germany.
The two archives were then joined and housed in Cambridge, Mass at the Polaroid headquarters.
I’m not sure where they are now.
cate @ 2007-03-14 08:33:19 PM says:
incredible post andrew & palmea. i am humbled by your knowledge and experience of and with my favorite medium. i wish i could be a fly on the wall in your classroom.
dash @ 2007-03-14 08:48:21 PM says:
neaaa sobress se3 cuidaann soy ekl
bayyy
spoass
http://www.agarrala.com @ 2007-03-15 12:09:58 PM says:
El mejor servidor de fotos de chile http://www.agarrala.com
jkh_22 @ 2007-03-15 04:58:44 PM says:
i’m understanding more and more why you and cryingboy hit it off so well…
impressive.
dangerpaws @ 2007-03-16 10:45:02 AM says:
that palmea is smart as a whip! what great honest insight.
craiglist @ 2007-04-06 12:48:11 AM says:
Interesting blog
karina @ 2007-04-08 12:53:22 PM says:
wwaa ! como voi pa mi log ;(
karina @ 2007-04-08 12:54:13 PM says:
HxC io pom http://www.fotolog.com/korina__77