“Shake it like a Polaroid Picture” may be coming back in style
When the Polaroid Land camera was first around, you had to peel apart the print from the developing chemicals, and coat the B&W shots with a preservative liquid. You really did need to shake it, to dry the coating.
Ok, maybe you didn’t HAVE to, but you did it, anyway.
And a part of popular photographic culture, came to the world in general.
That was a long time ago, and the whole shaking bit was not necessary, for decades.
Back to the basics: The concept of an instant photo delighted consumers and pros alike. Still does.
The SX-70 was, in our minds, one of the finest instant cameras, ever.
Folding design, excellent glass, superb capabilities in artistic expression with the extra heavy emulsions and inks just below the acetate surface of the image, close up capability, and more.
Then, with the onslaught of digital photography, the one billion Polaroid cameras in use, were taken out of the closet less and less.
Til Polaroid stopped making film for the camera.
Not long ago, a group known as The Impossible Project, decided that those billion cameras needed film. And there were probably enough people who loved what Polaroid once was, who would support it rising again.
They proceeded to hire the former employees and buy the machinery necessary to reboot the legacy.
This is a part of their story:
Thankfully, we never got rid of our SX-70. Can’t wait to load it up again.