Polaroid recently announced plans to axe film production, blaming competition from digital cameras. With the end of instant film next year, the miracle will be discontinued. The glossy square on which an image gradually and magically appeared is doomed. I adore the Polaroid moment: the colors and textures, the washed-out quality and the clean white borders, the easy, fun and instant pleasure, the sentimentality and old-fashioned image. The result is never as perfect as digital but offers more emotion. It is less sterile and definitely more amusing! A Polaroid camera is an instant myth-maker, a bit like Andy Warhol, and it always makes people look good ... I love to see the pictures develop right before my eyes and I have always admired the medium's rich glow and tints of the quickly captured instant. My boy and I have accumulated a collection of 6 Polaroid cameras over the years which I plan to cherish and keep knowing that they represent a little bit of photographic history.
Anyway, Polaroid apparently has enough stock to continue selling through 2009 and I intend to get my hands on a lot of film before the end of a legend.
My favorite childhood photos are Polaroids and here are a few of me and my sister!