It's Hip to Be Square
by Tod
I must confess, I am in love with the square. As in square format photography. And no other camera has promulgated the square as widely or as faithfully as the Polaroid SX-70/680 series. I cannot imagine framing an image any other way. Losing these cameras from my arsenal reduces, in my eyes, my artistic choices. Certainly, I can switch to any number of medium format SLRs. I can nab a Hassllelblad or whatever that Germanic-sounding device is called. But is it portable? Does it produce the unique textures or unsurpassed colors of the Polaroid? Does it, in short, do what I want a camera to do? No. Only the sexy ground glass and mirrors of Edwin Land’s most beautiful creation can give me what I want.
Beyond the square, there is no form of photography more pure, no lover more faithfully reproductive than my darling Polaroid. Like all great loves, there is no cheating with her. No hanky panky in a darkroom. No Photoshopped cyber-sex. Pola’s every utterance can be taken at face value, without fear of digital duplicity. In retreating from the production of this profoundly honest form of photography, the current owners of the Polaroid brand name are removing from the creative world one of its last and greatest “analog” tools.
Call me old-fashioned, if you must. Belittle me because I scoff at the iPod and it’s lousy fidelity, preferring the superior delivery of my vinyl and CDs. But understand that with Polaroid, it’s the same situation: Superior quality banished for the perception of convenience. My world, unlike too many others, isn’t filled to overflowing with rechargers, USB cables, and memory cards. I pity those who find evolution represented by these bits of inconsequential scatter. Give me my records. Hand me my Polaroid camera. You’ll find both bring bigger smiles to the children and the elderly—the two segments of our society who care little for the digital detritus that binds us to illusions of progress.
I have to run…my horse and buggy is here.
