A while back, I was at a farewell party to wish Marjanne the best of luck on her travels ahead. Being the last time she would see her friends for a while, this party would be something to remember. For this, she received the ideal gift: an old fashioned Polaroid camera.
In the age of digital photography, we can do just about anything with pictures. We can take them, instantly view the result, modify it and even print them instantly. Still, there is something incredibly charming about collectively gathering around a tiny piece of paper that just came out of a huge camera, slowly watching it develop and scribbling a line or two in the white space below.
Unfortunately, the iconic analogue Polaroid camera is as good as dead. You will no longer find the self-developing cameras on the shelves, but finding packs of instant film to go with them is even harder. A second hand photo store turned out to have a few packs left, for the price of € 10,- per ten, which was considered cheap.
In the days after the party, I read an article titled Group buys Polaroid factory, resumes production, mentioning something about The Impossible Project, an attempt to resume production of Polaroid film. Turns out, the factory they bought is right here in Enschede, where I live.
I’m going to be following this one closely, and maybe, by 2010, we’ll be snapping fuzzy shots, that slowly materialise the events of the past on a tiny piece of paper like it’s 1999 ;)
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