the demise of Polaroid film

Spoon shot with Polaroid 35mm Polapan film

Tea cup shot with Polaroid Type 55 film then dipped into cooking oil and re-shot


Tea cup shot on Polaroid Time-Zero film, with the backing separated from the image layer which was then scratched utilizing a paintbrush.


Sadly, last year Polaroid announced the discontinuance of its instant film line. Polaroid film provided an extra palette for the photographic community to incorporate in the art of imagery. There was a special quality to a lot of their films that were ideal for expression and experimentation. Some examples of my personal work utilizing Polaroid film are shown above.

As an example, Type 669 (peel-apart color film) had the nice characteristic of providing a transferable image doing the 90-second development process. Many photographers exploited this characteristic to full advantage by transferring images to watercolor paper which yielded painterly images. Another Polaroid film, 35mm PolaPan, created black and white positive transparencies with a unique grain structure that was unlike any other film on the market.

I guess this is yet another testimony to the fact that nothing remains the same. In this instance, technology, economics, and a dwindling customer base, all took their toll on Polaroid's film division. The company remains in business, focused on its digital (albeit small) product line. (I suppose I am already too late to sell off my inventory of film cameras, at least for what I would deem a reasonable price. Prices on film cameras in classified ads and on the internet are definitely depreciating at an alarming rate. But I digress . . . ) Artistic expression will always rise to the latest technology to take advantage of the distinctive characteristics of the medium. I'm not worried about that. I will however, like many things that have passed as I grow older, miss the tactile, analog world of Polaroid film and all of the unexplored possibilities it presented.