I need to say that what the men and women of the Impossible Project are doing is without peer, and is a truly fantastic endeavor. Seriously, if you spend some time checking out their site you can’t help but respect how hard they are working on keeping a truly special part of the photographic experience alive. Having heard a lot about this film it was with pleasure that I purchased 4 packs of their new color film at the classic camera fair in Shinjuku two weeks ago at a booth owned by SX-70 Forever, an instant camera and film boutique near Tokyo.
The booth was constantly surrounded by twenty-somethings checking out the photo albums full of sample pictures and purchasing imported Impossible film. It looked enough to me that if done right, the Impossible people ought to do ok in the Japan market.
As great as it was to be able to load my polaroid camera with a fresh new pack of film, I was in no way expecting results which would equal true Polaroid Film quality. In this way I wasn’t disappointed at all when I shot it for the first time this afternoon.
Here is a straight scan of a shot taken at a festival in Kitasenju today:
Some photoshopping resulted in this:
I did get one portrait to come out fairly well- I was shooting with a Polaroid 690 and had it set to it’s brightest setting, with a flash at 4 feet away in bright sunlight. Maybe this was the wrong camera to use since it was calibrated to handle 600 Integral film.
As is suggested I quickly put each exposed image into a bag away from light for several minutes. I’ve still got about two dozen shots left. (And about 10 or 15 unopened packs of Fujifilm Cheki shots in my fridge.)
I knew it wasn’t going to be Polaroid film. This is a fact that the folks with the Impossible Project are quite clear on. The images continued to develop over several hours after exposure which was ok.
So all that I’m going to say is this- if they can figure out how to bump up their contrast, they’ll really be on to something. It’s probably too much to want a molecule for molecule remake of 600 or SX-70 film so what is available at this point is something close to almost good enough. Almost. The best thing to be done is to buy a pack or two and see for yourself how well you like it.
I won’t for a second try to deny the fact that the sting of the absence of Polaroid film has lessened over the past two years. It is an crummy reality that actual polaroid film as was (albeit expensively) available a few years ago is gone. I wish the impossible project fellows the best of luck. I have heard that the film which they have produced is “horrible” on accounts of a Japanese friend who read about it in a Japanese photo magazine, and “really difficult to use” from a friend who has actually shot some of the film. (still waiting for it to show up at Yodobashi Camera to see for myself) Polaroid the company has further watered down their brand by re-badging a Fuji Cheki as a new Polaroid camera for the Non-Japanese market. Which probably is a good thing as increased (steady?) demand for Fujifilm instant film is fine with me. (I have both a Cheki and that bigger one too)
From what I’ve been told, the main trouble with Polaroid being able to produce 600 film was due to the rising costs of materials needed to manufacture the battery that was housed in each and every pack of film. Fujifilm got it right the first time with designing their instant cameras to be powered by readily available AA batteries.
Two years after the loss of Polaroid film, the Yokohama Museum of Art is host to a 126 member strong group show of polaroid pictures entitled 126 Polaroid. Among the 126 photographers you will find work by Nobuyoshi Araki, Naoki Ishikawa, Meisa Fujishiro, Daido Moriyama, among the Big Names. With the exception of about a dozen large format Polaroid pictures, each photographer was allotted space for six pictures (sx-70 or Spectra or 600 film types) matted sharply in two rows. The economy of the show was fitting and the white space between images helped with visual digestion. It’s a little odd seeing polaroids mounted on the wall as big-A art. Like in “Art in frames and with mats”. I say “odd” because part of the charm of polaroids is the intimacy which they foster– both between you and the picture, and you and the person who is in the picture, provided there is one. Polaroids are an experience, and there has never in the history of this particular medium ever been a Bad Picture. It is impossible to ruin an instant photo. Several photographers had presented pictures with roller spots, or corners where the chemistry was unable to reach. These too have their own visual peculiarities which I find fascinatingly beautiful.
One last point about Polaroids- – I don’t have most of my best portraits shot with my SX-70. Often the actual picture holds more importance to the person pictured than it could to the photographer. I really liked the picture below but it is going to mean far, far more to Keiko through the years than it could to me in a box in my apartment.
Viewing 6000 polaroids at once is enough to bewilder anyone, but the fact that they were all taken by Araki makes a visit to his current show rathole gallery a dizzying experience.
