Death of Polaroid / Moerenuma

As everyone knows they stopped making Polaroid film and the last batch expired more than a month ago now. I still had two films (one left now) and was looking forward to using them up, so I took the big, lumpy camera-cum-spaceship to Moerenuma Park when Andy, Yuki, Tara and I went there for an "outing" last week.

The first time I pressed the button on the new film two pictures came out at once, one blank, the other partly ruined / enhanced by the effect you can see below (hint: there wasn't really a giant caramel blanket over half of the world). After that the camera refused to finish the film and now the plastic film cartridge seems to be jammed in.

So maybe they weren't shitting about that expiry date huh?!

Or maybe it's just that I've got some midas touch that breaks cameras at the moment.

Either way, I'm really happy with the way some of these shots came out. In scanning them I've tried to preserve the "Polaroid Palette" as much as possible. As Andy said, it has an instant-nostalgia effect - when he looked at the snaps he felt like it was the record of some warm, old memory; when in fact the trip had been earlier that day.





I hope you enjoyed that latest installment of "The Last Days of Polaroid." I'm going to take a knife to the camera and try to drag it out a little longer.

Death of Polaroid / Moment of Silence

A great photo feature in the Guardian this week alerted me to the fact that the last batch of film manufactured for my beloved polaroid camera (that I have owned for approximately four months) apparently expires at the end of the month. Since I still have two film "cartridges" for the beast I guess I should use 'em up. I'm not too fussed though, I imagine that I can push that expiry date a bit, as you can with most dry goods.

Still I took the hefty thing with me when I went out yesterday, and I reckon I'll burn through those last two films pretty quickly. Here's the end of the first film I bought:


And here's what's left to use - hungry, gaping maw and all:


The, ah, guitar isn't actually essential for taking photos of course. My appartment is just pretty messy at the moment. Ideas for projects involving twenty polaroid photos would be very welcome.

Hokkaido University Festival 2009

Polaroid Joy

So, Bunny bequeathed me a fantastic device upon her departure for England... a device the old ones call "A Polaroid Camera". That is, she has more than one, and she figured she could fit another four rolls of tape with animals on it into her case if she ditched the camera in Japan. I'm not sure how many polaroid cameras Bunny has - at times I imagine she lives in a hut on the moor, built entirely from polaroid cameras held together by animal pattern tape.

Anyway, this weekend I obtained film for said camera at a princely cost. Seriously, a real stomp to the wallet. But the sheer joy of weilding this huge plastic box that "k'chonk"s open and spits out actual physical photos soon put my misgivings away.



On polaroid film everything looks like it takes place in the 1970s and is awesome.