Exploring the unlikely intersections of walking, photography and making
I’d like to invite you to my upcoming photo exhibition, “From Our Windows: Polaroids by David Firman” at the Winnipeg Architectural Foundation (WAF), 266 McDermot Avenue in Winnipeg. “From Our Windows” is a personal story of life contained within four walls. Set during the early days of COVID-19, the story explores the relationship of sanctuary... Continue Reading →
Winnipegger’s new book explores self-isolation through the lens of a Polaroid camera. On December 10, 2020 at 7:00 PM CST, David Firman will hold a virtual book launch and reading via Zoom. The event is free but pre-registration is required. The registration form is here: https://www.firmangallery.com/BookLaunchRegistration. David Firman’s new photography book, From Our Windows, tells... Continue Reading →
This is the final set of Polaroids in my From Our Windows project. I could continue of course. It's not as if the pandemic has suddenly vanished. But I am comfortable with what I have captured over the past three months. When I lay out my eighty-plus little framed images, I can see a complete... Continue Reading →
This is the third and final series of Polaroid SX-70 pictures altered with alcohol inks. It has been a curious exercise. Although I apply the inks as a single, tiny dot, how it spreads across the glossy surface of the photo is totally unpredictable and uncontrollable. How appropriate!
In 1977, when André Kertész began his Polaroid SX-70 series From My Window, he started with a glass figurine, a crystalline icon for his recently departed wife, Elizabeth. In 2020, the iconography of our times is not one of remembrance and reverence but of dread and an unknown future. Midway through my own From Our... Continue Reading →
My experiments with alcohol ink on Polaroids continue.
My journey from room to room to room continues. All photographs in my From Our Windows project were taken in May, June and July 2020 with a Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera, Alpha 1, Model 2 manufactured January 12, 1977. The film used for this project was Polaroid/Polaroid Originals Color SX-70 Film manufactured by Impossible BV... Continue Reading →
This is the first of several experiments using alcohol inks to alter Polaroid SX-70 photos. The glossy Mylar image is the perfect receptor for these inks. I watch as a single drop of ink spreads out across the plastic surface unpredictably. I hope for a circle. I hope that another drop and another colour will... Continue Reading →
A few more Polaroids of light infiltrating our home.
The pandemic grows on and on and on. Regulations come and go and come and go and come again. But home remains home.