Polaroid film going bye-bye

[Ksandra]

Fans bid farewell to Polaroid film - CNN.com

Every day for a year, Tacey Willis looked for an eye-catching photo subject -- a ballerina, a rocker dude in a bookstore or three older ladies from the Red Hat Society. She allowed herself one shot each day, with only one piece of instant film.

But halfway through that year, Willis abruptly took the money she'd saved for a down payment on a car and bought every piece of Polaroid film she could find. Why? Because the Polaroid Corp. announced it would stop making instant film. And without it her project, "Day by Day Polaroid," would never be complete.

Sixty years after Polaroid introduced its first instant camera, the company's iconic film is disappearing from stores.

Although Polaroid says the film should be available into 2009, this is the final month of its last production year.

Eclipsed by digital photography, Polaroid's white-bordered prints -- and the anticipation they created as their ghostly images gradually came into view -- will soon be things of the past.

From David Hockney's famous Polaroid art compositions, to the line, "Shake it like a Polaroid picture" from OutKast's hit "Hey Ya!", Polaroid instant film has embedded itself in popular culture.

The public's reaction to Polaroid's announcement reflects that. Blogs lament the loss. Polaroid-fan groups have formed on Facebook. On Amazon.com, a four-pack of 10 exposures is selling for $64 -- nearly $1.60 per photo.

The announcement hit Willis, an artist in Los Angeles, California, especially hard. She began her "Day by Day Polaroid" project in June 2007 and still had four months to finish. "I really freaked out when they came out with the memo," she said.

Her project -- a book manuscript waiting for a publisher -- contains 365 photos accompanied by related songs, movies and quotations.

So why did she choose Polaroid and not some other type of photo? Willis is simply in love with that little white rectangle.

"It always turns out completely different than it looks in the viewpoint," she said. "At first I felt frustrated. But then, as an artist, it made it more fun. You had to let it go. I like sitting down with each picture. It's like a baby. You put so much art and soul into it."

Willis isn't alone in her devotion. Minneapolis, Minnesota, graphic designer Sean Tubridy founded SavePolaroid.com with some friends he met through a Polaroid Flickr group. The Web site's mission: to persuade another company to produce the instant film.

"For me, watching a Polaroid picture develop is like watching a memory form right before your eyes," Tubridy wrote on his Web site.

"With instant film, you don't get to make the choice of whether or not a picture is 'good enough' to make a print. You can't just hit delete because someone was making a weird face, or the framing wasn't quite right or in some way the image doesn't live up to the unattainable idea of perfection...

"It's life, and chances are, we'll find it in a box years later and be thankful that we have it -- dirty shorts, nervous smile and all."

SavePolaroid.com has about 4,000 members -- 573 of whom uploaded stories on why they think Polaroid instant film is worth keeping.

In a statement, Polaroid acknowledges its film's "loyal and passionate following," but says the company is looking to the future. Sales of all film types have plummeted this decade as digital photography became the norm.

Tubridy agrees that digital photography has its advantages, but he believes that instant film, and its 20th-century technology, still has a purpose.

"The biggest misconception is that digital is a perfect replacement for [instant film]," he said. "I don't use Polaroids to replace [digital], to take to parties and events. That's not really practical and I don't think anyone would argue that. It's just something special at times when you want something different."

For others, it's more about nostalgia and their Polaroid-snapshot memories, which make it harder to let go of their Instamatic past.

Sean Burns, of Columbia City, Oregon, fondly remembers the cross-country trips his family took every summer for more than 20 years. They traveled thousands of miles, covering practically every road west of the Mississippi, and almost every moment is documented on Polaroid film.

"Dad thought Polaroid was the greatest invention ever conceived and stubbornly remains loyal to the product to this day," Burns wrote on iReport.com. His father, Otis Burns, received his first Polaroid camera in elementary school in the 1940s.

"He was so intrigued and fascinated by the instant developed pictures that he became almost religiously devoted to Polaroid and refused to accept any other form of film," Burns said.

Otis Burns still takes the same camera on his road trips today. At every motel where he spends the night, he takes a photo of the view from the room -- whether it's a pastoral landscape, a brick wall or the parking lot. And on the back of each photo he writes the details of the setting: the room number, the town and the date.

"Sometimes magic seems to happen and a deceptively simple picture outside a Motel 6 can say a thousand words," Sean Burns said of his father's collection. "Polaroid photos take [only] a minute to develop, but sometimes art takes decades."

ya ya I know they aren't needed anymore, but still feels kinda weird. D:

PS:

1. buy film

2. wait 5 years

3. ????

4. Profit

[Plow]

this honestly makes me want to cry

I feel freaking old.

[Kohan]

I've never owned a Polaroid camera, and now I want in on this business. You never know what you have till it's gone and all that.

[Ksandra]

this honestly makes me want to cry

I feel freaking old.

same thought I had when I read this.

[ferigor]

This makes the polaroid camera and two packs of film I have in my closet seem so much more valuable than I'd previously thought.

[Stiker]

Lots of good memories of the first pictures I ever took myself. I remember thinking Polaroids were the shit because you didn't have to drop them off a drug store to see your photos. >.>

[Byrd]

With the advent of ditigal cameras, it appears the Polaroid camera is no longer needed as the home made porn generator.

[Katlan]

this honestly makes me want to cry

I feel freaking old.

I haven't used a Polaroid camera for over 10 years (lol), but I remember those days I was so giddy over taking a picture w/ one and watching it slowly develop

[Jones]

Needz moar Outkast.

[Plow]

I haven't used a Polaroid camera for over 10 years (lol), but I remember those days I was so giddy over taking a picture w/ one and watching it slowly develop

It was definitely the coolest thing ever.


Honestly, I'd like to see a poll, "Did your grandma have a Polaroid?"

I bet like 95% of people whose grandparents lived within the last... however many years that shit's been around... would be yes.

[Zalius]

have a ton of this shit in my garage, a ton. like 2000 lbs

[Rhinox]

FUCK YOU 2008!111111

[Priran]

ugh I hate when people wax poetic about inane shit

IT'S LIKE WATCHING A MEMORY DEVELOP RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US POLAROID ;-;!


guess what faggot, if anyone actually gave a shit about polaroid they wouldn't be going out of business. i fucking guarantee you if you had asked any of the people quoted in this article except the "artist" what they thought about polaroids the day before they heard they were going to stop making them, the first thing out of their collective fucking mouths would have been "they still make those? lol".

[Celeste]

Polowhat? lol

[Lordwafik]

I've never seen a polaroid >_>

[Plow]

ugh I hate when people wax poetic about inane shit

IT'S LIKE WATCHING A MEMORY DEVELOP RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US POLAROID ;-;!


guess what faggot, if anyone actually gave a shit about polaroid they wouldn't be going out of business. i fucking guarantee you if you had asked any of the people quoted in this article except the "artist" what they thought about polaroids the day before they heard they were going to stop making them, the first thing out of their collective fucking mouths would have been "they still make those? lol".

nope, my answer if you asked me the day before I heard this what I think about Polaroids would be "grandma" fo sho

[Khelek]

I've never seen a polaroid >_>

think it's some US mumbo jumbo.

[thebearofscience]

yeah i saw this.
been buying all the film i can find so i can finish my polaroid project.