How Polaroid got under my skin I

My journey through photography has been extremely amateuresque. I don’t own high-end top of the class cameras, I haven’t done any photography course… A while ago someone came stumping into my life, telling me about Polaroid. She said she could not ake digital photos any longe r because she can only see through polaroid “viewfinders”. When she left my life she left a polaroid camera at my place, an SX-70, old but apparently very rare. The camera was loaded with 8 shots of Polaroid SX-70 film, expired and again very rare.

After months of keeping the camera hidden away (with her other things she carelessly left behind), one day I decided to look through that magical viewfinder she was talking about. So I took the camera out and started shooting Polaroids.

This is my first ever Polaroid photograph:

Vanilla Sky

A while after I asked google to help me and tell memore about Polaroid: cameras, films, etc. Then I begged e-bay for a Land Camera using peel-off film (Type 100) and for exprired Sx-70 or Time Zero Films. It has to be said that the SX-70 camera only works with these rare most expensive expired films (as production stopped years ago). But people do lots of things to get round difficulties and still use their apparently usless cameras. Some use 1 or 2stops ND filters with the SX-70 in order to use the Type 600 film (although production was discontinued for this film as well, one can still find it here and there).

So I bought filters and started shooting 600 film as well. I quite like it, though many of the more ‘professional’ types would rant about it. I use to take sunny photos, getting used to the Polaroid viewfinder:

Sun Bathing

 The beach in New Brighton has become one of my favourites site to experiment with Polaroids. It’s a wonderful tidal place, moody and rough.

The great British summer

 On this beach rein the Fort and the Lighthouse! I must have taken dozens of photograps of the lighhouse and it is never quite the same. Perhaps the beauty of photography lies is this: you can almost transposed some of your own perceptions of a place, time, happening onto the printed image. I mean… if you can do that it is great. I have always thought that no two shots of the lighthouse came out the same.

New Brighton Lighthouse in vintage

Framed

This is not the whole story of how I got to love polaroid. I suppose, if anyones wants a summary, the story goes… I had to fill in an empty place left by someone… as a means of healing if you want, healing without hating.