There have been a lot of changes in photographic media in the last 5 years. Though I love my Nikon DSLR and my Lumix point and shoot cameras, I long for contact sheets and other lost materials of the analog world. I miss the local one-hour photo shop that did super enlargements and prints from film or cd. I miss Polaroid film (I have just one, outdated package of 600 film left, that I am saving for some special photoshoot with my 680 SLR).
The Impossible Project has saved the day for Polaroid lovers. They have just introduced a newly manufactured black and white Polaroid film for the SX70 camera (I’m going to have to bug my Dad to look in the garage, because I think he has an SX70 in a cabinet out there). Soon, The Impossible Project will have a new color film, and they have good stock of surviving 600 film right now.
What a cool endeavor, The Impossible Project. Dutch scientists took a ten-year lease on an old Polaroid factory and proceeded to reinvent the unique Polaroid photography process. As the world becomes digital, TIP is valiantly preserving the analog.
Here is a mini gallery of favorite polaroids; Ships restaurant in LA, demonstrates the rich natural color the film was capable of; a thousand-year-old egg that was a chinese new year gift from a student; a birthday card, based around my son’s arm cast, which we had just painted. © stefangutermuth 2010.
