I just found this old Polacolor instant slide from 1985-6. Tracy liked hanging around my studio. I liked that she did. Not stored in the best conditions.
@Gaston 012 You ask a very good question. Most folks think that Polaroid went down due to the advent of digital photography. I read about this so long ago my recollection may not be 100% trustworthy. What I recall is Polaroid was under the control of a new owner and he drained the company of its assets and, highly unusual for this class of people, actually went to jail for his misdeeds. Polaroid started as a defense contractor and the photography part came later when, as Dr. Land told it, he took his young daughter's picture and she asked him why can't we see the picture now? Why do we have to wait? That got him experimenting, and the rest is history. After the collapse of the company, I guess no one was interested in reviving it, and some of their facilities were actually demolished for scrap. eventually some enterprising people got it going again. BTW, Polaroid made a B&W version of this film. Somewhere I have examples of that film too.
I love fun nonchalant unpretentious portraits like this. she looks like she was/is a great friend, and its always fun to have fun people hanging in creative spaces ! @artonpaper yeah, from what I remember it was the owner of Citybanc who bought the company and did exactly as you described, and it was very sad... the early 2000s/late 90s were famous for people doing just that. here on RI a small, loved, local-chain of ice cream/restaurants was purchased and used by the out of state/absent new owners as a cash cow and drove it into bankruptcy, and one of the last New England amusement parks suffered the same fate. 7 deadly sins and all that ...
hope you find some more poorly stored polaroids this one is great
John
Well it looks like I opened up a can of worms!
These are interesting stories and show, unmistakably, that human nature does not evolve too much.
What a sad ending for a great product. I guess the fact that the guys who re created it, cant remember their name, did not do well in spite of, apparently, making a good quality replacement.
I still got some 4x5 polaroids type 52 from 2008 that work like a charm, I only use them when I have difficulty making up my mind as to what I want to do with a particular shot.