Shake it
Monday, March 10, 2008
long time no update blah blah blahMy brother just informed me that Polaroid 600 film was recently discontinued. I was particularly disheartened to hear this. This was the classic Polaroid stuff that still worked in a ton of old cameras as well as the newer ones. I know a lot of people still use (and love) the stuff but I guess in this day and age not enough of them to keep producing it. This is similar to the way I felt a few years ago when the last North American producer of audio recording tape ceased production. The last I checked it was near impossible to find new tape (rumour has it that Steve Albini tracked down as much as he could and stockpiled it ). Now I'm not against technology, In fact I've always said that you can't fight technology (I think originally referring to all the opposition to file sharing back when it rose to popularity when all those ingrained in the old way of selling music tried to destroy non physical media before realising they had to adapt and change their business models (this was well before itunes existed)) But another thing that I've always said is "comfort is the enemy of progress". I think a major problem with a lot of the new digital formats is that they are so easy and convenient that we run the risk of getting to comfortable and with such art can become very safe (maybe not safe but Its almost as if a lot of the magic disappears). I will use photography as an example. Before the digital SLR existed if you we're taking pictures with a film SLR you really had no idea what your pictures would look like until they were developed. Even the greatest photographers in the world didn't know what their shots really looked like until they had them in their hands (obviously talented photographers pretty much knew what they we're going to be getting, by knowing exactly what they were doing but they still could never be 100% positive). This is particularly true for multiple exposure shots and long exposure or bulb shots. As someone who did a fair bit of photography using those 2 methods it really was quite amazing when you finally saw the developed product and the shots looked good (sure there were a lot that didn't work out but that was what made the good so much better). With digital it is really easy to make these types of shots look good because you can do them over and over until you get it to look right. No mystery... no magic.
Back to Polaroid. The beauty of Polaroid is its imperfect nature. It can be argued that it looks terrible but it can also be argued that it looks perfect. It has a look all its own. I always seem to think of Polaroid in the same realm as 4-track recording. They both have their limitations but when done right can be absolutely beautiful. The biggest problem with Polaroid however was the price. It was really disappointing to have a bunch of shots not turn out when it was costing you $1 or $2 per picture (this is where the new technologies beat out the old and I with that they had been meshed together) When digital photography first started rising in popularity I thought that Polaroid should have been right there on top of things. They we're the first in the photo world to create the whole instant gratification thing . I envisioned them coming out with a digital camera that took Polaroid film but you could just print out the pics that you wanted. You know the best of both worlds. Delete the pics that didn't work and have the best one's printed out right then and there.
Its a shame that they aren't making the film anymore. I mean FUCK in 5 or 10 years the movie Memento won't even make sense anymore (at least not to the younger generation). I may pull an Albini and try to find as much as I can.
Speaking of photography, remember in the olden days when people used to think that if you had your photo taken that it stole your soul and then in modern times people laughed and joked about it and talked about how stupid people used to be. Well I was thinking about this recently and OK maybe a single picture won't steal your soul but what if photos do affect your soul. Follow this logic. What group of people are the most photographed people on the planet? Celebrities. Specifically the attention seeking publicity hungry celebrities: Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton etc. And what do these people have in common? They are fucked up. Rehab, mental breakdowns, legal troubles, Whoreish behavior etc. Maybe by having so many photos of yourself taken (I would guess literally in the millions for that crew) and having so many people looking at those photos it actually causes a strain on your very soul.
Lets for a minute imagine that all living things on earth are bonded and connected spiritually (kinda like the force in Star Wars) and certain people have their image plastered virtually everywhere you go. Now some people obsess over the the images they see all over the place and scrutinize the subjects every move while others don't really care but they still know exactly who the people are and see them every time they are in line at the supermarket. So whether consciously or unconsciously everyone is expending some of their psychic energy on those who are photographed to excess and because everyone is bonded together (see above) all the focus on these individuals is a heavy burden to carry its an almost soul destroying or possibly soul stealing existence. Maybe those olden days folk weren't so wrong.
Labels: photography
