After years of study and practice with Photoshop, Illustrator and Corel Painter, my life savings spent on iPods, iPhones, iMacs, Macbooks, digital cameras, study of html and css, countless hours reading technical blogs and trying to stay on top of every new development, I’ve come to realize something…
It’s comforting to return to simple things. And there are certain qualities about earlier technologies that don’t exist in later ones. There’s a pride in doing things the original way that they were intended to be done. So it’s no surprise that so many people still prefer filming with Super 8 instead of digital, or making cakes from scratch when the mixes in a box are so awesome. Or handcutting stencils despite how long it takes and how badly your fingers hurt afterwards.
I bought a cheap plastic polaroid camera last week for $10 from a woman on Craigslist. It’s the first time I’ve ever owned a Polaroid camera, despite always wanting one as a kid. When I posted the scanned results of my very first Polaroid photos on flickr yesterday, I was asked what I used to get the effects I got. I laughed because I used nothing. I used a piece of plastic and pushed a button. I even spent an hour that day looking for the place where you put the batteries for the flash to work on my new cheap piece of plastic camera. I asked people in the line at Duane Reade. I made phone calls to professional photographers. Finally I found out that the energy needed to power the flash is actually INSIDE THE FILM. I was amazed. It really made me rethink my viewpoints about technology, my condescension of everything that isn’t the newest, best, latest, coolest thing.
Perhaps what’s coolest is what came first.
No, I’m not going out and buying an abacus. I’m just sayin…
You hit the nail on the head. dreX, when I ate the first egg that was laid by my chickens here in Georgia, I finally realized that without those first, simple steps, we would never be where we are today.
Beautiful images and I am so thankful that you have relished in this experienced. I totally love you!
I totally love you too. 🙂
Drex, that’s what i enjoy about you…always open to new ideas even if they are old ones forgotten. Love the shots. Now you know why I only shot 120 plastic cameras:)
thank you, kendall. it was such an amazing discovery and an exciting day. now i want one of those polaroids that uses the pull-apart film. the new fuji pull-apart film has amazing colors. and the old polaroid pull-apart film, when you can find it, sometimes does very strange things once it’s expired. which is awesome too.
It’s funny that this was my week to fall in love with my Wacom all over again.
Also, you seem to have some talent completely independent of the media you use. Not everyone could take those photos with a cheap plastic camera. I may be mistaken, but the film cartridge doesn’t do its own composition. 🙂
heh, no. but i always considered myself a completely shite photographer. so i attribute everything good that happened with these photos to the camera itself. maybe i’m getting better, though.
Drex, you did a great job on your story and pictures. It was very journal-esque and I was drawn into the story and images quickly. You could have posted a whole page to read and I would have been absorbed in it. Great post and being a photography nut I can appreciate your simple approach to good images.