The day I bumped into Sally Mann & the day Luuk owned up to binning my signed copy of I’ve Lived in Hoxton for 81 ½ Years by Martin Usborne
This is the same day we decided to buy the new Polaroid film from The IMPOSSIBLE project to bring my collection back to life. I spent my twenties collecting old Polaroid cameras from the crazy bric’a’brac stores along the Oxford Road, Reading - a haven for a bargain and probably still is. Most of my Polaroid purchases required a certain attention to get an image of worth out. Yes, my 1960’s collection had its problems, mainly with rollers that lacked pressure, but i kind of liked that and enjoyed their crazy 60’s look, there was probably something equally wrong with their internals as the colours were not as clear or sharp as the then more modern machines.
So excitedly I went to the Photographers Gallery with one of my classic Polaroid’s, dragging Luuk with me, he owed me, two weeks prior to this day he accidently binned my signed copy of ‘I’ve Lived in Hoxton for 81 ½ Years’ by Martin Usbourne which I loved. Anyway, I purchased a box, warned the results would be different I felt confident I’d have no problems given my experience, I even took one of my crazy cameras out with me to Thailand 15 years ago and believe me in that light you have to ‘work it’.
The results: You need to treat the film differently, not in comparison to previous stock. I have taken just four pictures and all came out looking sepia in look and feel, flat, Victorian and required heat and shade to assist its development. I also thought that by now the net would be full of examples, blog posts eulogising the new supply of film etc. but no, there is very little written or examples posted.
This was the day I spotted Sally Mann at the Photographers Gallery. Not so much by chance as her work was on display, her work equally looking quite ‘silver shade’ like, much like the results of my Polaroid pics. .. “fuck there’s Sally Man” I said to Luuk! “grab her book from the shelf, run and get it autographed and then I might forgive you for accidently throwing my signed ‘81 ½ Years book in the bin to which is no longer produced”. She looked so beautiful, serene and spoke softly; i left a happy girl and spent my evening eulogising about Sally Mann’s work to my best friend and photographer Geoff.
