Polaroids - An American Icon
By peggy*gardner
24 May 2008
My first camera was the Polaroid "Swinger." There aren't many left, because that's just what we did with them, swung them around. The first thing that would come off was the red tip on the "go" button on the white boxy camera. Who can forget the flash cubes spinning around. How easy it was to snap several times on one image and discover multiple images. And the smell of the sticky light pink "fixer" sealing your fossil in time. I still have those pictures today, and I can remember taking every one of them.
An avid camera collector means I had many makes and models to play with when I raised my four sons. My favorite were the old foldy ones that you had to pull out. But even 20 years ago, the roll film was hard to find so I wasn't able to shoot many black & whites.
As a photographer in the nineties I shot slide film professionally as well as medium format. The Polaroid backs didn't give a full frame, but then I discovered the Vivitar slide printer and WOW, you loaded it will Polaroid film and it would take an instant quality full frame of your slide. It was a way to make image transfers without having to take the image the moment you wanted to make the transfer, and, allowed several attempts and more vivid colors.
Aside from infrared film, Polaroid is my favorite and there remains a warmth to the images that to me, are priceless, even the black and white prints have a quality that is so endearing. And, I greatly respect the fact that the prints have silver in them, which means the longevity far outlasts standard C41 prints.
Good bye soon old friend. And thanks for recording my life in such an instantly fun way.
