2009 in film

So then, that was 2009, eh? How to summarise it?

Um...

Oh yes - in general, photography, and specifically, POLAROID!

At the beginning of the year I had a few cameras: a Nikon D50 was my main workhorse, with my iPhone with me at all times. In a couple of cupboards I had my dad's Nikon FM, unused for years, my first generation Mamiya 646, also unused. No need to use film - digital is where it's at!

Brendan Dawes on twitter mentioned this online store called PolaPremium which seemed to be selling Polaroid film and cameras, and also about The Impossible Project who were working on a plan to bring back instant film. Sounded interesting.

Then I went to the new Photographers' Gallery on Ramillies Street in London, just around the corner from where I work, and saw all the delicious film cameras in their shop, and a wall with Polaroid film for sale. Interesting. Didn't my dad have an old SX-70 lying on a shelf?

And so it began. In the spring I visited my parents in France, with a cartridge of Artistic TZ in my bag. The camera worked fine, and the obsession took hold. He let me take it back with me, just in time for 'Roid Week! (Here are my pictures from Spring 'Roid Week 09)

I'd already been on Twitter for a bit, mainly just tweeting amongst friends. 'Roid Week opened that right up introducing me to the Polaroid focal point which is Anne Bowerman. Anne and her partner Dave Bias were behind Save Polaroid. They are the American wing of PolaPremium and The Impossible Project. (Dave also designed the Medeski Martin and Wood website. My. Favourite. Band. Ever). Anne's tireless work, enthusiasm and encouragement through Twitter and flickr is the glue which joins the new Polaroid community together.

Also through 'Roid Week I found out about Etsy, again through Anne, but also through the fantastic work of the fantastic Nancy Stockdale and Lauren Beacham. I set up a store, and while sales have been slow, it's great to have an outlet for prints. One of my aims for 2010 is to push my store a bit harder.

So in brief, the world of analogue photography re-opened for me. And this resulted in accumulations... I'm now the proud owner of:

1. SX-70
2. SX-70 Sonar
3. Polaroid Land 250 Automatic
4. Polaroid 3000
5. Polaroid ProCam
6. Lubitel (which I don't like and will sell)
7. Holga
8. Polaroid back for the Holga
9. Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim (thanks to Jess Hibbard for being my enabler with that one!)
10. Vivitar 3D camera
11. Digital Harinezumi
12. Olympus Trip 35 waiting to be picked up from the post office. 

(click on the links to see the pictures I took)

I may have forgotten one or two cameras in there. Oh, yes, I also upgraded my D50 to a D90, and got a lovely 50mm lens for it. That will do for now, although a Hasselblad and Polaroid 600SE are needed, of course.

As the year went on, I found a wonderful subject for my cameras in Thetford Forest. Shot it with 600 film:



I shot it on Time Zero:



I shot it with Blue Polaroid film:



And on my Vivitar UWS:



And on my Holga:



(Forest shots here)

I went to France three times:



(more France shots here)

There was another 'Roid Week in November...

And it was a year of getting to know many great people through Twitter and Flickr, many fantastic photographers, too many to single out, although special mention goes to Jeff Hutton who devised his brilliant and generous Polaroid Giveaway Project, which saw him sending out originals on the condition that recipients posted an image of the Polaroid. I went out on Christmas day to the forest with his image of the Rockefeller Center in New York (taken on Chocolate film for 'Roid Week in November):



So there you have it! Happy 2010, everybody. May your year be full of exciting and interesting photographs. May mine be full of Impossible Project film!

Polaroid in the news

Friday 9th of October marked the day the last Polaroid film expired. The expired film will be good for a while to come though, gradually revealing randomness and unexpected art through the decaying chemicals.

I was recently on holiday in France, and one pack of SX-70 Time Zero film I had had expired in 2006, and had apparently been stored in the back of a drawer (not ideal conditions!). The results were lovely:



(the rest the pack can be found here)

But there will be new film again. The Impossible Project is constantly in the news it seems. (Check out the link on the right hand side of their site). Here is a news item from More4 in the UK from Friday night:



And of course, old, beautifully stored (and often beautifully presented)film can still be bought from the wonderful Polapremium!

Oh, and there's another 'Roid week coming up in November...

Hip to be square

Again, it's been a while....

So anyway, once more I'm propelled into blogging due to new equipment! Well more accurately old equipment: a Polaroid SX-70. It is a thing of beauty and engineering ingenuity: folding to the size of a paperback book, unfolding to produce images almost instantly. It's an SLR! It has leather casing! It was given to my father in the early 1970s by a colleague in the advertising industry, and was given a service in 1980, and has laid dormant on shelves for at least 20 years. The wonderful thing about the SX-70, is that as the battery is contained within the film pack, it worked perfectly first time. Wonderful.

(My first shot in about 25 years)

The great thing about getting into Polaroid is there are a lot of communities out there on the internet - notably Polanoid for showing off your shots (here's my currently somewhat diminutive profile - link on the right to see pictures), lots of Flickr groups, and the very helpful Georg Holderied Salvisberg shows you how to take one apart to repair or modify. And then there's Polapremium, a shop for all your Polaroid needs - cameras, films, books, accessories.

Which brings us to the not so great side of Polaroid. It no longer makes cameras or more importantly, film. Fortunately for me, just around the corner from my work is The Photographers' Gallery which has a wonderful bookshop which also sells pinhole, Holga and Lomo cameras, and Polaroid film. This is the last batch of the stuff, with expiration dates in September this year (not that out of date film is a major impediment to the modern Polaroider). I picked up a pack of TZ Artistic film which has creamy, muted colours (see above), and is a bit expensive. This is the only correct speed film for the SX-70, but it is possible to use the less expensive 600 film if you modify the camera (permanently or using a neutral density filter on the lens or on the pack). Boots in the UK seems to still have stock of 600 film at a reasonable price.

All is hopefully not lost! There is The Impossible Project which aims to restart making film. I really hope they do it.

As to the actual camera, it is in great condition (my dad looks after his stuff). One slight problem is that there is a strange mouldy-looking bloom in the rear of the lens. Thanks to Georg's site, I know how to take off the lens housing. Unfortunately, the camera was built during a brief period where Polaroid thought using 1mm square-headed screws was a great idea. Cheers. It seems impossible to find the correct implement, so modifying other tools seems to be the way to go. No luck yet, but getting closer.

My enthusiasm for this magnificent piece of technology has spurred a colleague from work to get one off eBay! Fun ahead...

And finally, a great little movie explaining the SX-70's workings and philosophy:

Goult, 1 and 2

In April I visited my parents in France, and was blessed with somewhat changeable weather. However, one afternoon my father and I went on a quick visit to a fairly nearby village called Goult (Google Maps) and the clouds parted just long enough for me to fire off nearly 150 pictures in just over an hour (I'm not usually quite so trigger-happy). The main reason for so many shots was the nature of this village with its combination of ancient doorways, buildings springing out of the rock, an extraordinary cemetery and of course the Provencal colourings. I'll let the pictures take over from here...

gallery 1
gallery 2

France 2006

I took my Panosaurus with me on holiday to my parents' home in the South of France in June, and have posted the results to my site.

click here to see the results.

The pictures are around and inside their home, as well as up by a hill top church in a nearby village.