My Polaroid Story
Photo and words by Erich
I grew up as everyone does, a product of two families. My father’s side always had Kodak Instamatic cameras, and nobody took photography seriously. My mother’s side, however, was somehow deeply tied to the instant Polaroid. I still remember my Grandfather’s SX-70, that’s it in the photo, from Christmas parties and reunions – he would take a photo, and everyone would gather around to watch it develop. When we needed proof of the fish we caught, the Polaroid was there.
At a recent funeral, I was not surprised to see a memorial set up, with Polaroid photos of all types and generations of our family. There were old rollfilm photos of my grandfather, packfilm photos of us as children, all the way up to Spectra photos of the newborns. Many of the prints had been handled with care for decades, with fingerprints and well-worn edges marking the time between their printing and today. It seems we have grown up with instant photography, so it’s no surprise that I turned to Polaroid as a medium when I started taking photos for myself.
Today, when our photos can be taken, stored, and uploaded digitally, it’s easier never to make a hard copy, never feel a print in your hands. We’ll see less and less photos hanging on walls, and more being tucked away in dusty corners of hard drives, to be lost forever. Polaroids are the antithesis of that kind of photography. They force you to accept an image when it comes out of the camera, good or bad, and give you a unique print you can share with others, as soon as you take it. It’s beautiful. I’ve found that the gift of a Polaroid can open doors when other cameras would close them shut, I’ve seen the smiles that these photos produce. After all, the instant print is about people, it’s about the small community you create when that photo develops in front of your eyes.
Polaroid announced earlier this month that they will cease making all instant films by the end of 2008. Tom Petters will have the Polaroid logo all to himself, to plaster all over meaningless poorly made products like TVs and DVD players that I absolutely will never buy, ever. When instant film is dead, Polaroid is dead. As simple as that.
I can only hope and pray that Fuji will continue to make their instant films.
