string fever | photos + commentary.

i do like instant gratification after all

Last week my friend Rituski surprised me with a Polaroid camera that she'd picked up at a garage sale for five bucks. We didn't know if it worked or not, so I ordered some film and tested it out. And whaddya know, Hallelujah! I've been carrying around the Polaroid ever since, which is a bit like owning a laptop and opting to lug around a typewriter instead. Just for the novelty of it.

I've been hearing, ever since last year when Polaroid announced that it was going to stop manufacturing its instant film, that people have been scrambling to stockpile Polaroid film as though instant Polaroids are the remedy against the coming Apocalypse. The Polaroid Y2K. From my own recent buying experience, the remaining back supply of Polaroid film now comes out to about $2 per photo. I wonder how many poor artists are investing in film instead of in down payments. And thinking that it's totally worth it.

The good news is that, while the film is expensive, the camera itself is going the way of vinyl, which means that these days you can buy an operating Polaroid camera at a flea market for five bucks. And to meet the renewed demand for instant film, The Impossible Project hopes to start producing Polaroid instant film by next year. So I'm holding my breath. And buying film.