The final two photo projects involve the Polaroid I got when I was in 9th grade: a postcard exchange with a friend in California, and a ten-item Polaroid scavenger hunt with my pen pal in Quebec. Seeing a little square image with my address written on the white part with a Sharpie is so, so nice to come home to among the sea of long skinny rectangular envelopes with clear plastic address windows.
(I also go out with my Holga on occasion, even though most of those rolls of film come out black. I am not a very good photographer, I just enjoy it to no end.)
Anyway, my point is that I am sad. I just now read this terribly sad NYTimes piece on the end of Polaroid as we know it.
Polaroid Corp. is dropping the technology it pioneered long before digital photography rendered instant film obsolete to all but a few nostalgia buffs.Now, I'm sure they are sad too. I'm sure they thought long and hard before doing this. I'm sure that they weren't making as much money as they potentially could have. But now hundreds people are out of a job and thousands (hundreds of thousands?) are out of a simple technology that has brought so much joy in the past. All but a few nostalgia buffs? It can't be. I kind of refuse to believe that. I think there are many more than "a few" of us who feel a connection to and affection towards Polaroids. I want there to be a global survey measuring people's love of the memories, symbol of spontaneous fun and aesthetic of Polaroid photos (I never said I wasn't idealistic and unrealistic at times).
Polaroid is closing factories in Massachusetts, Mexico and the Netherlands and cutting 450 jobs as the brand synonymous with instant images focuses on ventures such as a portable printer for images from cell phones and Polaroid-branded digital cameras, televisions and DVD players.
I am not going to pretend to know about Polaroid's revenue, lack thereof, projections, metrics or any other money and numbers-related things. But the equity that they have just based on the name... I mean, look at what happens when you simply type "polaroid" into Amazon. I have been out with friends before and heard them gasp when coming across a book of Polaroids at bookstores, no matter the topic of the photos.
Is there anything we can do? One of the examples I didn't mention about Clay Shirky's talk last week dealt with a real estate professional who was SO ANGRY because of the state of our airline industry that she singlehandedly put together the online petition that led to the Passenger Bill of Rights. I am pretty sure that there are enough people passionate enough about this technology to do something similar. I don't know how to go about that. Anybody? I don't know. The jobs have already been cut and the factories are probably half closed by now.
No, I know that the world isn't over. I know that there are far worse problems out there (Far worse. I know. Thinking about them makes me feel silly for even writing this). And yes, I read in that article that Fujifilm will continue to produce instant film. Does it look the same? I have no clue. I'll have to find out, I guess. I am still sad.
EDIT | Being the twit that I am, I managed to miss this very important sentence in the article: "Meanwhile, Polaroid is seeking a partner to acquire licensing rights for its instant film, in hopes that another firm will continue making the film to supply Polaroid enthusiasts." My friend Igor just pointed that out to me.
I went to school for avant garde film. cough! a lot of which was made on 8mm and Super 8 film. There was a huge collective groan when video supplanted film for amateurs. Hording of stock, all that. Now we have youtube, viral videos, VLOGs, iMovie, ubiquitous sharing. I'd say a more democratic medium, if you can call all the formats a medium. But just more people generating moving images. I'd say it's better.
ReplyDeleteI'd say we're well in the realm of the ubiquitous cross medium still.
I have no point, just boxes of old movie cameras and at least 10 different Polaroid cameras and devices. Including one that takes slides and puts the image onto Polaroid film...
Gilette Razors and Polaroid Film, planned obsolescence, is the name of the game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor#Gillette_Innovation
Anyone want a SCSI cable?
i have an old polaroid camero in florido. i got it for my tenth birthday. now i want to buy film for it and save it. mew.
ReplyDeleteJo
ReplyDeletePlease stop them!!!! Malaysia will support you. I digged out my 10-years old polaroid cam recently, thinking of playing photographer again and what I found out was, there ain't any stores that sell the film!!!! I was distressed...and thinking that I didn't look hard enough..Now I know.
Yes, there are peeps who are getting tired of digital megapixels and turning back to the nostalgic 0-pixels days. In marketing, that would be a trend cycle. Polaroid society can just be the next Lomo :=)
did you see this?
ReplyDeletehttp://flickr.com/photos/sx70manipulator/2253308263/
Randy, wouldn't it be interesting if they did this because they knew there would be a backlash that they could cash in on later?
ReplyDeleteLaura, I am buying our our neighborhood's Rite Aid of film soon. I think I'm serious. Let me know if you want to claim any of the rolls.
big city b, thanks for commenting, yes it's sad :( just recently my best friend was trying to find a Polaroid camera to buy for someone, and was wondering why they were a little harder to come across than they were a few years ago. so sad. People are getting tired of digital - I agree, to an extent. I get more joy out of film than I do out of digital. Heron agrees, read his entry about shooting film for one's blog!
dino, yes :( sad. I saw it in Flickr favorites too...
yeah, shucks...great post on a horrible situation. I hope someone picks it up, zink tech. is a bit of hope but not the same thing at all.Out to buy up all the film i can manage and still eat and pay rent ;)
ReplyDeleteSo sad...
ReplyDelete