Serious Photography with Instant Film

Polaroid Polagraph 400. Miss it terribly.

Marie Consindas and Andy Warhol has been doing serious work. When I shot professionally back in the day, I only use Polaroid to proof for the "real" film. I'm not Consindas nor Warhol, but Polaroids by them are precious art objects.

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/marie-consindas/

I like the Polaroid 100, metal body and tripod ready. Do a battery conversion and the only problem is you will occasionally find one with a bad electronic board easy to make a pin hole camera out of those. clean the rollers, and start shooting. The 110 a and B's are the Cadillac's. The only tools I use are a hacksaw and file, mine may not be as pretty as the pro's conversations but they work great. Only problem is finding the camera for a decent price with a good lens, then get a back, I have even used backs from the 100's, a lot more work testing and fitting. Plus lots of information to be found on line.
David

a.brujo.rodriguez-3 by a.rodriguezpix, on Flickr

Scorn by a.rodriguezpix, on Flickr

the Grave, that knows what infinite dreams I keep, (o Grave, the poet's friend forever, thou!) all through the night bereft of exiled sleep, by a.rodriguezpix, on Flickr

And like remorse the worm will gnaw you in your sleep. by a.rodriguezpix, on Flickr

a.brujo.rodriguez-7 by a.rodriguezpix, on Flickr

Triste by a.rodriguezpix, on Flickr

the original one

a.rollei.brujo.rodriguez-8 by a.rodriguezpix, on Flickr

M Carter said:

Polaroid Polagraph 400. Miss it terribly.

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By the way that's a great photo.

David

rubyfalls said:

Ratty - did you ever snag an instant camera? I got my oldest a 250 land camera for his birthday and loved his shots so much I found a 360 for myself but am having some issues with it.

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Nope, never did. I'd like one that took peel apart film but there's just so few options for film that I don't want to get into that anymore.

There are 2 tapes of instant photography. Integral and peel apart. What I miss in this discussion is that peel apart 4x5 is serious photography. Ansal Adams shot a lot of his famous photo's on Polaroid Type 55. The old 8x10 inch Polaroid was used by many artists. So yes there is a serious side to instant photography. New55 will be on sale in 2015 so that serious side is coming back. Of course instax and Impossible is closer to the fun side of photography. However like it is said before it depends on with what intentions you take the instant photo. In that regard it can be serious photography. After all it is the photographer who creates the photo. Not the camera. That is just a tool.

I've got a Mamiya RB67 medium format with a Polaroid back. When exposure the Polaroid, you only get part of the 6x7cm of the normal size.

I got the Polaroid back years ago pre-digital to test exposures before shooting regular film. I stopped using it for that purpose.

Any suggestions of what I could do with it now? How can it be used in a creative way? Color vs. BW, etc?

Alan Klein said:

I've got a Mamiya RB67 medium format with a Polaroid back. When exposure the Polaroid, you only get part of the 6x7cm of the normal size.

I got the Polaroid back years ago pre-digital to test exposures before shooting regular film. I stopped using it for that purpose.

Any suggestions of what I could do with it now? How can it be used in a creative way? Color vs. BW, etc?

Click to expand...

I would just use it as any other type of film, and have fun with it! If I were you, I'd stock up on the B&W FujiFilms as it has been discontinued, and runs about $15 USD these day's! I really enjoyed the look of that film, the Fujifilm FP-3000B Professional Instant Black & White Film (10 Exposures)