A Polaroid SX-70 and the Maine coast

[limr]

Awesome, creative use of film and camera. Amazing really.

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Aww, shucks

 

[limr]

Agreed,these have an old-timey look to them, with their soft lens look that was so valued at one time, before the obsession with sharpness and hard-edged image rendering on every shot took over.

Sharpness can be overrated

 

[limr]

Have you seen the Eames video?

Video: The Polaroid SX-70 Promo Made by Charles and Ray Eames


I have Eames chairs, my parents bought a bunch at an auction years ago before they went up in value and we all ended up with some. Charles and his wife Ray sure knew design.

I watched that video last night. It's really well done, if a bit cheesy, but what wasn't cheesy at that time? There were some great shots they showed as examples. It's such a shame that Polaroid isn't making film anymore

I can't explain what it is exactly, but I find instant photography to be so satisfying and inspiring. There's something about the way the emulsion looks that just screams mood and feeling and nostalgia. Maybe it triggers my Portuguese soul and its need for saudade (look it up - it's one of those "untranslatable" words), or maybe it's because I see photography as a form of expression, not just aesthetics. Whatever it is, creating a feeling with an image seems to be what I strive for in my photography, no matter what the medium is, and instant film makes this goal easier for me.

For Christmas, Buzz got me a book on Andre Kertesz's work with a Polaroid SX-70. Kertesz had lost his wife and his motivation to take pictures until someone gave him an SX-70 and he was invigorated. The work he did with that camera is just so heartbreaking and beautiful. A lot of it was inspired by his wife and his sadness at losing her, and that feeling comes through so clearly and so loudly. I have to admit to getting really emotional as I looked through the images. His use of light and shadow is masterful and inspiring.

andre kertesz polaroids - Google Search

 

[limr]

This is one of the images that gets me all choked up: https://quietphotography.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/kertesz_polaroids_01.jpg

The glass figurines are symbolic. Here's a quote from the book:

His recovery [after his wife died] began when he was compelled to buy a small glass bust that he had discovered in the wondow of Brentano's bookstore on 8th Street and University Place. Initially he resisted the urge to acquire the elegant figure but found he was haunted by it. He recalled, 'I was very touched...The neck and shoulder...it was Elizabeth. I went in, and I looked and looked and decided: "Don't buy," I didn't want to see this always before me, you understand. But after three months...it was a horrible day: March, cold, nobody on the streets. I went over. I was alone in the store. And: "May I help you?" "Yes I want this." "It is beautiful." "I know. I have been looking a long time. I want to buy."'

After a while, he bought a second figurine and posed them together around the apartment. This image, with the two figurines and his shadow in the background...it just kills me.

 

[jcdeboever]

I think I met that man back in 81 in an artist's studio in NY, not his.

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[limr]

I think I met that man back in 81 in an artist's studio in NY, not his.

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Holy cow, really?? I LOVE his work. Do you remember what he was like?

 

[jcdeboever]

I think I met that man back in 81 in an artist's studio in NY, not his.

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Holy cow, really?? I LOVE his work. Do you remember what he was like?

Very thick accent, hard to understand. Jovial that day. I believe him and Jasper Johns were kind of making fun of me, I was like 17 and wide eyed amazed at the largeness of Jasper Johns encaustic paintings. I was definitely amazed by Johns work and later took to encaustic. It was really a blur that day and I was only there like 5 or 10 minutes. I clicked on your google link and I recognized him immediately. Had no idea who he was or what he was about until clicking on that link. He was old and seemed frail, kept staring at me too.



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[robbins.photo]

What, no HDR?

Sigh....


Lol.. seriously though, fantastic set. It's just so nice seeing a landscape that doesn't make my eyes bleed.

 

[limr]

I think I met that man back in 81 in an artist's studio in NY, not his.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Holy cow, really?? I LOVE his work. Do you remember what he was like?

Very thick accent, hard to understand. Jovial that day. I believe him and Jasper Johns were kind of making fun of me, I was like 17 and wide eyed amazed at the largeness of Jasper Johns encaustic paintings. I was definitely amazed by Johns work and later took to encaustic. It was really a blur that day and I was only there like 5 or 10 minutes. I clicked on your google link and I recognized him immediately. Had no idea who he was or what he was about until clicking on that link. He was old and seemed frail, kept staring at me too.
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That would have been 4 years before he died. I'm envious!

(Edit: Not envious of his dying, of course, but of your meeting him )

And that's the second mention of encaustic so I had to google images and techniques, and I have a feeling that it's going to suck me in...

What, no HDR?

Sigh....


Lol.. seriously though, fantastic set. It's just so nice seeing a landscape that doesn't make my eyes bleed.

Thanks, ya big ape! The HDR function on the Polaroid is broken

 

[robbins.photo]

Thanks, ya big ape! The HDR function on the Polaroid is broken

Bummer. So when it did work it would what, spit out three pictures and you'd have to tape them together?

Lol

 

[limr]

Thanks, ya big ape! The HDR function on the Polaroid is broken

Bummer. So when it did work it would what, spit out three pictures and you'd have to tape them together?

Lol

 

[limr]

Incidentally, the last shot of my pack of color was also shot in Maine. And this is what happens when your frog tongue is crooked and doesn't cover the print, and you are shooting towards the sun: you open up a great inter-dimensional portal in the sky! Luckily it closed up before any demons could pass through

(I did use my hand to shield the lens and the area where the print comes out, but clearly it was not adequate.)


Interdimensional portal by limrodrigues, on Flickr