Inspiration

When I began shooting with polaroid, I came across a book in Leeds city art library called 'From polaroid to Impossible' which explained the change between 'Polaroid' to 'Impossible' (creating 'Polaroid Original' in late 2017) as a way of rejuvenating an old form of shooting. Because film for the polaroid is so expensive (It's now cheaper to buy the actual camera than two packs of film), it became a dying art form in the last twenty years. The same occurs with most forms of non-digital photography. However the 'Impossible project' was a campaign to bring back and reintegrate instant film to modern society by collaborating with other Niche markets and selling the film in 'hipster' stores such as Urban Outfitters. An example of this collaboration is with Jack White's Nashville based record store 'Third Man Records' which designed it's own form of film with a B and W frame housing  inside it, a yellow hued image. This attention to atypical marketing and unique detail has been really important in the revival of Polaroid which has seen an increase in sales by 20% (Journal, 2018).

When approaching this project, I was very open and experimental. My first pack of film was in colour and I was testing the water to understand my particular camera as well as the film as I'd never shot a polaroid before. The first few images I kept synonymous as my original idea was to do Andy Warholesque portraits of modern drag queens to make a point about the LGBT society. I wanted to put colourful wax on top of each portrait to make it look like coloured tears coming from the protagonist's eyes and even had the idea to call the project 'LGBTears' in accordance with the negative and stigmatic treatment of drag queens in society. However, I realised that this would be extremely difficult as I didn't have the time to portray such a sensitive and important topic with all the correct reading and research done beforehand and felt that because it was a topic that meant a lot to myself and others, I'd have to let it take a back seat until touch a time came that i could carry it out successfully.


Then I came across some polaroids that had been photo manipulated by 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' artist, Ralph Steadman. I'm a huge fan of his work because all of his art is synonymous no matter the medium and his artistic signature is very clear. I couldn't decide wether he'd melted the polaroids or drawn into them in their early development. I really liked how he used Maggie Thatcher and without need for context, had portrayed her in a negative light, giving the photo a quality that reminded me of old propaganda cartoons in newspapers. I did some research on photo manipulation, however, couldn't get the technique to work for me after many wasted polaroids and decided I'd let Ralph have this one.

I loved David Hockney's joiner's and again, how obvious Hockney's work is with it's recurring themes. As one of my favourite artists, I've seen his work 4 times, once in Belfast, London, Paris and Saltaire. However, the process would've been far too expensive as each pack of 8 exposures costs roughly 20 pounds.

Below is a microwaved polaroid (I tried this and and actually ended up setting my microwave on fire):

Eventually, I was on a Leeds Film Photo walk with am artist who's studying at Leeds Arts University and who was using the emulsion lifts in a street photography style. we were collaborating and she told me a little bit about the process. After a few drinks and a few polaroid shots, she said she'd show me how to do it which lead me to google to find out different ways of emulsion lifting...

Below is a pinterest page I made for the project:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/elliewildman9/photography-/

REFERENCES:

Journal, L. (2018). Polaroid Aims for Sales, Profit GrowthClimbing 20% as Early as Next Year. [online] WSJ. Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB963587239538120199 [Accessed 23 May 2018].