From Out of the Darkness

Recently, I began shooting the last of my Time-Zero.  Polaroid photographers know just what a painful statement that is to make.  The film is rapidly becoming degraded, though, and any effort to save it at this point is only an opportunity for loss.  The last pack I shot had an expiration date of December 2006, meaning it was a fairly new pack of Time-Zero, and I had arranged to film these shots during their developing process with a fellow artist.  The initial shots I got from it were quite black and rose, and those are the shots from the pack that I’m including here.

To shoot this pack of film, I visited the home of an artist who is a musician, painter, and actor, who is very photographable and who had agreed to help me film the Polaroids.  Chad is the upright bass player for a Twin Cities band Hot Rod Hearse, and the painting in the second portrait is his own.

a portrait of a musician

portrait of an artist

It was enjoyable to photograph someone who was not part of my list of usual suspects for models (my daughter, my son, their playmates, or my friend Lindsay).  I liked the experience so much that I am thinking of beginning a project of photographing artists of all kinds in their natural environments.

Anyway, because we were filming the the Polaroids in their developing process, I wanted to do a few still life photos which would be simple and visually pleasing to watch develop.  We took a few objects from Chad’s shelves, beginning with a ballerina figuring presumably belonging to his wife and finishing up with an evil little gnome.

a dancer for sophie

another little dancer

There were a few characteristically blue shots from this pack of Time-Zero, but I will include them in a separate blog entry, since they do not belong visually with these.

Thanks for Visiting,
Elinor
elinor@equivoquephoto.com
equivoquephoto
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Addictions and Obsessions

This winter has been very long.   I had been leaving to work in utter darkness each morning and returning home to greet dusk, but, yes, there is finally daylight when I get home from work at the end of the day!  Winter has made it  difficult to find opportunities to shoot.  Recently,  however, I bought a Phalaenopsis (a moth orchid)  as a prop to phot0graph in the late afternoon light in the kitchen.  I also cracked open a Magic Pack of Time-Zero given to me by a special friend in addition to a pack of 100 Chocolate film that I bought from Polapremium.  Shooting both types of film definitely brought a bit of levity back to my life, and the Choco turned out to be something I love.

The Chocolate Addiction: Composing with the Land camera, especially with a closeup attachment (as was done here) is not an easy thing.  There is a lot of parallex error, and it takes time and a considerable wastage of film to learn to compose with the mind’s eye rather than with the viewfinder.  Anyway, this 100 Chocolate film, with its rich contrast and lovely crackelure, has earned my affection along with my other favorite film types, Neopan and Time-Zero.  My newly acquired love of chocolate.

Child of Mine

The Obsession: I’ve been inclined towards nurturing my own obsessions throughout the course of my life.  I used to have a wild passion for orchids and owned and cared for hundreds of them!  Now they find their place in my life as occasional props for Polaroid photography.   Time-Zero film has been been the object of my affection for a long time now, though.  I hope I’m not like the fellow in Adaptation who says, “Fuck fish“.  I probably am, just a little, but I think my passion for photography is going to stick.

Sea Butterfly

Sea Butterflies

Obsession

Thanks for looking at my photographs,
Elinor

elinor@equivoquephoto.com
equivoquephoto
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Portrait of a Polaroid: Memento

Whenever a photographer uses expired film, surprise will be an element of the result.  While the photographer cannot place all his or her hope in interesting effects, however, he or she cannot count on entirely controlling the result either.  Before I began this little series on working with Time-Zero film (both fresh and expired), I had written an entry about a very special pack of Time-Zero that I received from a friend, for after I shot the pack, I found myself craving its magic again and again.   Though I will not repeat the photos from that entry here, I would like to conclude this series with photos from the black magic pack because they illustrate more than any of my Polaroids how rewarding working with expired film can be.

This is my personal favorite from my own portfolio… Polaroid and otherwise.  The deep roses, blacks, and blues that the magic pack of film yielded worked beautifully with this model’s skin.  This little objet d’art remains my memento of something treasured that cannot be duplicated ever again.

memento from the underworld

I was playing with the length of the exposure time in the following shot.  In this case, I used the SX-70’s dial to “overexpose” the shot.  The other blog entry features some of the darker versions of the still life.

decay and melancholy

In conclusion, then, it is certain that I’ll not have a chance to shoot non-expired Time-Zero film in all its glory again, it is highly unlikely that I will have the the opportunity to have in my possession something like the black magic pack again, but I have about 92 shots of expired Time-Zero film in its various stages of blossoming and decay waiting for me in the refrigerator.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to shoot something worthy of the film with it.  Thank you for taking the time to look at my Polaroids.

The fourth and last in a series chronicling the transitions and decline of an aristocrat of film types, Polaroid Time-Zero film… Polaroids by Elinor Scott-Sutter.

Portrait of a Polaroid
Painted Light
Fire & Ice
The Blues
Memento

Decay & Melancholy: Addiction to the Black Magic Pack

Not so long ago, a very kind friend of mine gave me one of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received in my life.  I’m not exaggerating in the least either.  It was a pack of extremely expired Time-Zero film.  Those who work with expired films know that getting good results can be a gamble.  In this case, I wagered and won.  I have never loved a pack of film so much!  While I’m grateful that I had a pack like this to shoot, I’m left wanting another black magic pack just like the one I had.  It’s a craving that can’t every be satisfied, though, as there is no more of the stuff to be had.

The impenetrable overgrowth of roses held motionless in their various stages of blossoming and decay…

Stages of Blossoming & Decay

Emerging from time…

Surfacing

We only remember fragments…

Fragments of Memory

We are all lost…

The Lost Art

The common fate of all things rare…

The Common Fate