Polaroid People
By Allison Sellers
6 July 2008
Film is dying. Even more so, instant film is dying, if not already being slowly lowered into its grave and covered in dirt, cut off from the world.
I recently found a Polaroid Land Camera at a little vintage resale shop down the street from where I live in south Austin, Texas. It had hardly been used and cost me 15 bucks. I took it home only to discover that the film was no longer made for it. Luckily I worked in a semi-fancy photo lab in North Austin at the time and the ever-so-crafty repair guys showed me a way I could rig up some Polaroid 600 film for the camera.
I did it. The photos were either too underexposed or too overexposed. They weren't perfect, they were grainy and blurry, but they seemed to work. I began taking instant photos of everyone I could find who would stand still enough to let me. I continue taking instants of people I know and these are only a few of the people who mean the most in my life.
Unlike taking photos with a little point and shoot digital, people were easily themselves when confronted with my Land Camera. There were no crazy faces, crossed eyes, tongues sticking out or obscene hand gestures. Just personalities.
They were just people and that's all I wanted from them.
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