News about the demise of Polaroid film production has pulled a number of interesting items out of the woodwork:
- Eames + Cramps + Cams: Check out this demo film of the Polaroid SX-70 made by famous furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames, but inexplicably set the music of The Cramps. Weirder still, it all kind of works. [Via]
- "The late cinematographer Jamie Livingston, who died at age 41 in 1997," writes Mike Johnston, "left an archive of almost 6,000 Polaroid SX-70 shots, taken one per day (with only minor lapses) for 18 years." You can browse the archive here.
- David Friedman would like to see a Polaroid-style digital picture frame, complete with dry-erase area for jotting notes. [Via]
- "Polaroid made me the photographer I am today": Photographer Ctein reminisces about the format’s importance in his artistic development.
- We recently met with some photogs doing a great project using large-format Polaroids. Once they post images publicly I’ll pass along the news.
One more photo-nostagia tip–this time for Kodak–this clip from Mad Men shows a pitch for the original slide carousel.
Some of my fondest photographic memories involve Polaroid. I worked in a camera shop and Polaroid provided unlimited free film to us in order to promote their cameras. Instead of snapping pics of customers as intended, I used it to experiment with still life photography in the back of the shop. Their instant b/w negative film was responsible for my interest in restoring old photos that I still have today.
While I understand the market forces at work, we really will lose something important if no one picks up the film franchise. There’s no digital equivalent for the SX70 (though I’m sure there eventually will be, but it’s years away).
First, the SX70 is a great camera. Second, thanks for the links.
But, man, I really think there’s an opportunity opening up with the end of polaroid film production. There isn’t anything like it… put a printer in a digi camera and I’ll buy one!