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Fringe Canadians

Paul Ozzello

Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
618
Location
Montreal
Format
Medium Format
I spent several weeks photographing the trucker protests in Ottawa, Canada with my Polaroid SX-70 camera. I mainly took portraits of the truckers next to their rigs and many of them signed them for me making them even more special.

I'm not politically opinionated and these photos are simply my vision of the event. Please refrain from making any political comments - moderators will delete them. If you feel compelled to make a statement send me a PM instead.

Fringe Canadian - "Bianka"

 
I like the pic a lot. What did you shoot it with? Very smooth tones. I'm also curious as to what your definition of "fringe" might be? It might help to read/interpret the image.

Here in the U.S., we don't really know much about any fringe elements in Canada, or at least I don't, except through the media. I lived around Canadians in snowbird states, and my neighbors were Canadian in Florida, but those were senior, retiree snowbirds. Probably similar to our retired middle class in the U. S.
 
Great use of instant photography!
 
momus said:
What did you shoot it with?
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Said it was Polaroid. This will be the Monochrome, most likely the 600 type (though they also sell it in the slower SX-70 version).
 
momus said:
I like the pic a lot. What did you shoot it with? Very smooth tones. I'm also curious as to what your definition of "fringe" might be? It might help to read/interpret the image.
Click to expand...
Thanks momus. I have a "Mint" modified SX-70. Most of the images I shot were with SX-70 monochrome which I find is nicer than the 600.
Without getting too political - Fringe Canadians is a reference to Trudeau describing the protestors as a fringe minority, my title choice is an subtle attempt at humor and irony.

MattKing said:
Great use of instant photography!
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Thanks Matt!

I have many more to come - I broke the bank and shot over a hundred Polaroids!
 


That's not political. It's not a discussion, I'm not going to tell anyone my opinion here. It's just a title and you let your photographs do the talking. I like that a lot. It's art that way, and this photograph is great on its own merits. The dog make it a little extra cool.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your favorites from that hundred shots.
 
fatso said:
I only acquired the Mint recently. I like how the polaroid forces you to really think about composition - no cropping !
Click to expand...

I agree.

I try to do that with my C330 -- my only square -- to help me "see" the format since it's new to me. And it is really hard to do. But I know the option is always there with a nice, big negative. Polaroid you get what you got.

The quality is not like a MF either. Thad makes it doubly true. Your composition is pretty much everything that separates good from not as good on those.
 
I've never shot instant film. What causes the images to be soft? It gives a nice slightly ethereal / dreamlike effect but is it something inherent in the film or the camera?

Interesting project. Look forward to seeing more
 
I got out my SX-70 the other day. Got a couple packs of film, I found a half dozen flashbars, so much fun.
 
fatso said:
I only acquired the Mint recently. I like how the polaroid forces you to really think about composition - no cropping !
Click to expand...
How do you manage the light fogging? I'm sure if you bought a refurbished unit it comes with a "frogs tongue". I need to get something to fit my camera.
 
Moose22 said:
Your composition is pretty much everything that separates good from not as good on those
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Thanks Moose. The square is a great format and should rarely be cropped ;-)

Craig75 said:
What causes the images to be soft? It gives a nice slightly ethereal / dreamlike effect but is it something inherent in the film or the camera?
Click to expand...
A few are long nighttime exposures and I was shooting during a blizzard so there was some camera movement. I also didn't do a good job exporting the first two and they are very low res. But yes, when properly exposed the sx-70 film produces some wonderful creamy ethereal like tones.

mshchem said:
How do you manage the light fogging? I'm sure if you bought a refurbished unit it comes with a "frogs tongue". I need to get something to fit my camera.
Click to expand...
I didn't have one so I put my hand above the film as it came out and put it immediately in my jacket pocket. I would definately recommend getting one if you want the best image exposure.
 
I know you're not supposed to discuss politics and I won't. But to not be able to discuss the meaning of a photo or photo essay, defeats the whole point of taking the picture and exhibiting it. This isn't a landscape picture that you hang on a wall to pretty up the decor. The photo has content that you can't discuss. Content is the most important part of most pictures. For example, did the picture accomplish what the photographer was trying to say? What was he trying to say? Was the meaning clear in the photo? Things like that. To post "that's a nice picture" is meaningless. We learn nothing. To post a picture that is political in nature is political, to begin with. So if politics aren't allowed here, you shouldn't;t be able to post political pictures. Maybe this thread should be in the Lounge section. Maybe it belongs in Journalism and Documentary rather than Street. If it was there, could we then discuss the content?

Do you see the problem rules create?

By the way, I think it is great you came up with an interesting way to photograph this demonstration. I hope my saying that isn't political.
 
A lot if not most of any kind of photo-journalism is political but can be viewed for its content and what each of us takes from the pics can remain our own business

There comes a point when each viewer has taken as much as he can from the story the picture is telling him or her and it is then that further interest can only be maintained by a political discussion. Unfortunately this very quickly deteriorates into personal fights where the actual photography is forgotten about and the mods apply the lock. It is the only solution available to them

That is now a fact of Photrio life and we need to get used to it. It would not have been my choice but the decision was made

pentaxuser
 
Alan Edward Klein said:
Do you see the problem rules create?
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On the other hand, anyone who's been on Photrio for a while has seen the problems ignoring those rules creates. Threads that produce fifty pages in a day (and hence that no one is likely read all of), with none of the content actually related to the original photographic post, vitriol that escalates with each exchange and can produce long-lasting animosity or enmity. Flamewars do no one any good (except trolls, but we don't really want them here anyway). Discussion of politics in media like this forum virtually always evolves into a flamewar. Hence why we have the rules we have.

I like the choice of monochrome for these -- it gives an "old newspaper" feel to the photos, even though I doubt anyone had seen a Sherpa (the ATV in the first image) in North America when newspapers were almost entirely monochrome. IMO, the monochrome helps make the political content of the images less "immediate" -- possibly a bad thing for activism, but a good thing for civil discussion.
 
fatso said:
But yes, when properly exposed the sx-70 film produces some wonderful creamy ethereal like tones.
Click to expand...

Great work! Long-live square format!

I’m plenty old enough to remember the original Polaroids, but curiously, inexplicably, I never kept any to compare with the modern reformulation.

I wonder how they compare?
 
I agree Alan, I added the warning message because my first thread got deleted after 15 minutes. I do have a lot to say about the images and would really like to discuss the meaning behind the pictures, maybe the moderators could be more lenient as long as we keep the discussion civilized. Or maybe add a content warning to the first post.
 
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