impossible project

In January of 2009, I posted a blog about the demise of Polaroid film. Briefly, Polaroid had decided to discontinue its entire line of film to pursue the burgeoning digital imagery market. While I suppose they cannot be faulted for attempting to remain financially viable, this decision deprived photographers of a wonderful medium that offered many creative possibilities. Visit my January 2009 post to see some examples

Needless to say, when Polaroid announced the discontinuance of its film line (complete with a detailed product-specific timeline), many photographers purchased large batches of Polaroid film. Today, it is still possible to find certain types of Polaroid film on eBay and through other outlets on the internet, but I suspect their inventories will soon be depleted.

Enter Impossible Project. Impossible Project began (the story goes) when its founder, Florian Kaps, was drinking beer with a manager of a Polaroid factory that had just been shut down. The factory's inventory of $130 million in Polaroid film production machines was scheduled for destruction in two days. Kaps, an admirer of Polaroid film, sought to do what seemed impossible -- "rally a group of disgruntled factory workers to re-invent a nearly destroyed technology and bring Polaroid's instant film business back from the grave. To this end, Kaps and his Impossible Project have been improbably successful." (quoting from an article from Dailyfinance.com by Sarah Gilbert) This was an almost impossible project. When you consider all that goes into such an undertaking - the negotiations with Polaroid, finding sources of funding for such an improbable venture, re-engineering the film production (not to mention a re-design of the film technology itself), etc. - it is quite a remarkable achievement. Sale of the first new product PX100 commences today (March 25th). The film is designed for Polaroid SX-70 cameras of which sources claim, millions still exit. (Actually, the number was 300 million, but it seems so high I truly wonder if this could be right). I, myself, have three of these cameras.

The images I've seen taken with this new film are breathtaking. Although PX100 is a black-and-white film, the resulting images are rendered in slightly cream to sepia tones. Several factors can affect the results: temperature (the colder temps "bleach" the images making them whiter, the hotter temps increase contrast and change the tonality to a dark orange-brown color), exposure to light during the development process and its senstivity to pressure (which imparts a texture). Undoubtedly, photographers will explore all of these to their creative best.

A gallery of images can be seen at: http://www.the-impossible project.com/projects/collection/px100

As you can imagine, I'm excited at getting my hands on some of this film stock shortly. Again, stay tuned, I hope to have some examples available soon.