Photography in the News, Please Do Not Shake It Edition

Are there any horribly inappropriate uses of instant photo technology in the news today?

I'm glad you asked. Of course there are.

Mortuary Techs Caught Head-Handed

"Mortuary technicians have been caught playing with the dead—and they even documented their deeds on Polaroid. According to the NY Post, the photos that have been released—allegedly by someone who was trying to blackmail the employees—were taken around 2004."

Photography in the News, Shake It Edition

Is there any news from the world of photography involving a world-class collection of photographs being sold off piece-by-piece rather than going to a museum? Unfortunately, there is, so now's your chance to purchase one of the 1,200 items up for auction...

Sotheby's to Sell Off Polaroid Collection

"The bankrupt Polaroid company will be selling off the highlights of its photography collection. Sotheby's has scheduled the auction for June 21st and 22nd, following a six-day-long display filling the entirety of Sotheby's headquarters."

Shake It Up: Photography in the News

I'm really from the "let it go, man, cause it's gone" school of thought. But not everyone is. Which is why this story of last-century's technology is in today's edition of Photography in the News.

CES: Polaroid film cameras come back

"Digital is the future, but the market has screamed for the return of Polaroid film," says Jon Pollock, Polaroid's chief marketing officer. The film is targeted toward artists and enthusiasts, and the cost per photo will be "pretty expensive," he acknowledges. No exact price was announced.

The re-introduction of film was made possible by a group of Polaroid fans in Denmark who call themselves the Impossible Project. They banded together to put a factory together to make the film again.

Apparently: not so impossible.

Get Over It, Or Future Art Historians Will Mock You

Sure, the Dulcimer, Clavichord, Virginal, Spinet and Harpsichord were all very good. They had individual properties that probably quite a few people "mourned" when the Pianoforte became the dominant instrument of the time. Luckily, no one blogged that keening wail, and in the long view we look at the evolution of instruments as one of the things driving the advancement of music: the piano offered more for a musician, so it won out and allowed the development of new art.

Here's my prediction: the photo historians of future centuries will look at the development of the digital camera as the real beginning of photography, with pre-digital photographs in a section of the textbook titled "proto-photography." In advanced classes they'll point out that most areas of photographic practice were developed in this period, but the limitations of film and the economics of the process held the field back in many ways. It will be seen as drawing before the invention of the pencil.

Still, as a sentimental and short-sighted lot, there's no end to the weeping from artists and photographers over the demise of Polaroid. While I tend to see it as a necessary evolutionary step, there are hundreds of bloggers writing about "what we've lost."

Artist Stefanie Schneider And The End Of Polaroid Film

Kimberly Brooks: How are you mourning the news that Polaroid is discontinuing your medium?

Stefanie Schneider: It's an era ending again. No more family pictures developing in front of the children's eyes. A piece of beauty disappearing....a piece of culture. Polaroid material has the most beautiful quality -- the colors on one side, but then the magic moment in witnessing the image to appear. The time stands still and the act of watching the image develop can be shared with the people around you. In the fast world of today it's nice to slow down for a moment. At the same time Polaroid slows time, it also captures a moment which becomes the past so instantly that the decay of time is even more apparent-- it gives the image a certain sentimentality or melancholy. Because of that intensity of the moment it seems to change the interaction of the next moment. The Polaroid moment is one of a kind, an original every time.

Strangely, the article is not written on a typewriter.

From The "Just Let It Go Already" File

Are there any stories about photography in the news? Yes, there are, and I'm moderately pleased that you asked.

Photography buffs mourning demise of the Polaroid era

"How do you transmit a digital picture?" asked Dolan, whose county includes areas with poor cellphone and radio reception. "We could be 60 miles (96 kilometres) from my office, and we have to take a picture of a car accident or a farm accident or a gunshot wound," he said. "You're a good distance from a computer hookup.''

So Dolan shoots Polaroids, slips them into an envelope, and ships them to the medical examiner along with the corpse. But with Polaroid's announcement this month that it is halting production of instant film, Dolan and thousands of others are forced to hunt for alternatives.

I guess if my typical day included photographing fatal farm incidents, I might tend to look on the pessimistic side of things as well. Still, somehow I think there might be alternatives to the Polaroid-in-an-envelope-taped-to-a-body-bag methodology.

They Had a Good Run

Polaroid Technology Fades Out

"The artsy, instantly gratifying Polaroid images, reeking of processing chemicals, have finally been done in by endless Flickr Web pages full of digital images, flawlessly produced by cameras that do not require film, emulsion or anything bigger than a shirt pocket to carry them around."

Grab One Corner and Shake

I think folks forget that the instant feedback one gets from digital photography -- "Hey, look at that. Now let's try this...." was also a part of making Polaroid photographs. Shooting with a 35mm film camera meant you wouldn't really know what you had for at least an hour, but watching a photo develop in front of your eyes was, as advertised, Instant Fun.

If you are feeling nostalgia for instant photography, you'll want to visit:

Polanoid

"We are building the biggest Polaroid-picture-collection of the planet to celebrate the magic of instant photography. So please seach your archives and attics and reactivate your Instant Cameras. This is the slamming comeback of Instant Photo Fun."