Studio Four Magazine: SIDE STREETS

“Side Streets”

A Polaroid Study by David Young

The main streets of life are pretty and refined. The side streets though are often where the richness of real life plays out. There you will find characters not quite ready for prime time and colorful patina of places not well known. What better way to capture this than with a Polaroid image, themselves artfully imperfect.

Polaroid cameras and film ruled the instant photography world until the digital age. Most known for ordinary snapshots, they also have been an important contributor to art.

Edwin Land, a physicist, invented the Polaroid Land Camera in 1947. Its importance to art grew quickly. Land met Ansel Adams at a photographer’s convention where the camera was first introduced. Adams intrigued by the instant film, agreed to work with Polaroid as a consultant. The film progressed from a poor quality brownish look to vivid colors. Adams used the film to record “El Capital, Sunrise” in 1968, one of his most famous pictures. Andy Warhol in the 1960’s used an inexpensive Polaroid called the “Big Shot.” He never went to any party without it, liking the arty close ups it produced. His shots documented the “Pop Culture” and provided a springboard for his paintings.

With the introduction of the Polaroid SX-70 film in the 1970’s, a whole new art scene took off. Chuck Close and other artists discovered that the gelatin emulsion used took time to dry. Close manipulated the film with a dull pencil and other instruments creating unique art that approached oil paintings in effect. This painterly impact soon caught on with other artists such as Walker Evan, Robert Maripol and William Wegman.

The film was used in another way Polaroid did not intend. Photographers could write on the oversize white bottom portion of the frame allowing for unique renditions and notes. SX-70 film production unfortunately ended in 2008 and along with it this unique art form.

In 2010, Lady Gaga declared that “I am a Polaroid camera girl.” She became a creative director for Polaroid amid a big advertising blitz. Even her star power was not enough to return Polaroid to prominence.

Today the company still produces a small line of cameras but none of their film approaches the artistic aspects of the SX-70 line. If you hunt through camera stores, you can still find and buy used original Polaroid cameras.

I can’t say that I am a “Polaroid Guy.” However, when I do happen upon an aging Polaroid in a camera store, my imagination wanders thinking of the art it can produce. So I borrow a friends Polaroid once in a while and head to the Side Streets of life to recapture that lost art.

For your enjoyment, I present my Polaroid Series of Side Streets.

David Young

Other Notes on Polaroid:

Edwin Land was a serial inventor and unique individual. While he was at work inventing the Polaroid camera, he was asked by the army to help them develop a better bomb site. In two weeks, he invented a site that was used throughout WWII. Land was also a showman. When his products were introduced, he orchestrated extravagant launches with bands and fanfare. Steve Jobs said in interviews that he was inspired by Land’s approach to technology, business and launches. He learned from Land the methodology he used to bring a product to market. Ironically, the demise of Polaroid was in part due to the iPhone.

Sources for Series Notes:

“What Steve Jobs Learned from Edwin Land of Polaroid” by Chunk Mui, Forbes Magazine

“Six Artists in Sixty Seconds” by Christopher Bonanos, Share This

“The Polaroid Picture Was Instantaneous, But it was Artists Who Made it Eternal” by Jonathon Keats, Peta Pixal

“Polaroid Art” by Vituzzu

“Back to the Future: What Makes Polaroid Cool” by Ashley Fetters, The Atlantic