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 in 2019/2020. All photographs were taken from the interior of my home on Raglan Road in Winnipeg.
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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 blend as I think it should. But the reality is that the ink goes where it wants to go. It’s not in my control.
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The pandemic grows on and on and on.
Regulations come and go and come and go and come again.
But home remains home.
Continue readingI started this series of posts with a written introduction to From Our Windows. However, I thought I would put together a “home-style” video with yours truly explaining the genesis of the project as well as a quick look-through of André Kertész’s 1981 book, From My Window.
The video is embedded in this post for your convenience but, if you wish to see it at a larger scale or full-screen, you can do so on my YouTube channel at: https://youtu.be/cMFdj8Exd2U. And, while there, be sure to subscribe: more videos will be added shortly!
A few more SX-70 photographs. Please be sure to click “Continue reading…” below to see all the images.
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The last time I picked up a Polaroid camera was about 1979. It was a Polaroid OneStep loaded with SX-70 film, both original Polaroid Corporation products.
So much has changed since then. Polaroid filed for bankruptcy in 2001, changed ownership twice and finally shut down its film processing plants in 2008. The Impossible Project salvaged the Netherlands factory just hours before it was to be demolished and set out to remanufacture Polaroid film, including SX-70 film, but with recipes missing, no suppliers, no color dyes and chemicals unavailable or banned the process of recreating the complex 3.5″ x 4.25″ integral film turned out to be a challenge.
The Impossible Project became Polaroid Originals in 2017, once it acquired the brand name and intellectual property of the original Polaroid Corporation and, simply, Polaroid earlier this year. Their SX-70 film has gone through a few iterations, improving immensely over the years. But the film I use today, is very different from the film I used in 1979. More to come on that topic. In the meantime, here are a few more SX-70 instant pictures in the From Our Windows project.
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“From Our Windows”, my current photography project, looks at the world as experienced from the windows of my home. It’s about the nature of enforced containment we all must deal with during the global pandemic, the longing for what lies beyond walls and windows, the stuff of life inside these walls and windows, the light that freely streams into my world and the beauty that comes out of that dialogue. It is my personal response to a collective event but it is also a view from all our windows.
I’d like to thank the Manitoba Arts Council (MAC) for approving a “Connecting the Distance” micro-grant towards the completion of this project. As with most photographic undertakings, production costs quickly mount and this project is no different. The financial assistance of MAC is greatly appreciated.
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