KLMNO SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013 EZ EE F7

The ‘slow photo’ movement, ESSAY developing a following

BY MELANIE D.G. KAPLAN icals used to process the film is com- pletely different. The intention was nev- In an old shoebox, I have a Polaroid of er to replicate Polaroid film exactly, the my beagle and me, taken in Lower company says; rather, it is experiment- Manhattan about a decade ago. That was ing. Verellen, the former Microsoft engi- my last Polaroid print — until this neer who opened Rare Medium two spring, when I was walking around years ago, says that he used to hear a Cleveland with a camera shop owner and number of complaints about the film, his friend Tim. but he thinks that it has improved. The Tim was using a Polaroid 250, which chief complaint today is that the film he’d bought at an antiques mall, and an isn’t really instant. Black-and-white film old pack of Polaroid instant film. He shot takes about five minutes to develop, and a picture of me, and in the palm of my color film can take a full half-hour. hand, I watched the image miraculously “Impossible isn’t Polaroid,” Verellen appear. Because of the film’s age (it says. “They’re making a more artistic expired five years ago), the colors were a product, so the casual photographer can little off, giving it an artsy, dreamlike be disappointed. With instant film, they quality. And because Polaroid will never expect it to develop in a couple of make film again, it was also a collector’s minutes before their eyes, and it item. doesn’t.” Polaroid, best known for its instant In addition to setting expectations for cameras, stopped making film in 2008. film processing times, Verellen and other That same year, rather than watch analog camera merchants spend count- Polaroid fade into extinction, some for- less hours talking to customers about mer employees teamed up to form the vintage cameras and film. Many of these Impossible Project. They saved the pro- stores hold classes and workshops on duction machinery in the Netherlands how to use analog cameras, but more and were able to start manufacturing than anything, the owners spend time new instant film for old Polaroid camer- chatting about every aspect of photogra- as. phy – from reminiscing about childhood Today, according to the Impossible cameras to debating the merits of vari- Project, there are more than 100 million ous types of film. of these classic cameras that can use “We’re enthusiasts here,” Verellen BIGSTOCK Impossible’s film, which hit the market says, “so people know they can come in in 2010. Some are in our parents’ attics; and hit us with the most bizarre Polaroid others are stuffed in boxes at yard sales; questions, and we’ll be able to help them andmoreandmore,theycanbefound— out.” refurbished and shiny — at retro camera At Studio Space Junk in Chattanooga, stores across the country. Tenn., owner Diane Edwards encourages Picturing the Not surprisingly, says Cory Verellen, people to stop by, and if she’s not busy, owner of Rare Medium, a photography she’ll give them an introductory lesson store in Seattle, some of the biggest on Impossible film. She calls her store an Polaroid enthusiasts are teens and young analog camera convenience store. “I’m a adults who have never known a camera one-stop shop,” she says, “where you can click-free vacation that wasn’t digital. get your Impossible film, talk about “But then you also get folks my age — cameras and have a cup of coffee.” I’m 39 — who grew up with instant Some of the stores host photo walks — BY PETER MANDEL painfully shy. cameras and want to capture some of the casual strolls around a neighborhood So I get that hotshot photographers magic of their childhood,”he says. “Every that give photographers of all skill levels This is Scotland, and I am tasting are proud. They can spot us amateurs time I’d go to my grandma’s, she’d break a chance to slow down, carefully frame Scotches. Very fine ones, in fact. I coming, and they suppress a smirk. I out the same Polaroid camera and shoot their shots, take pictures and discuss the should be happy. Even giddy. But know just what they’re thinking: No us to measure our progress. The Polaroid minutiae of the experience with like- there’s a problem. I can’t even see the fire in our bellies. No guts. No decent was ubiquitous in the U.S. I get a lot of minded folks. The walks are typically drams — much less sip any. equipment. No game. customers who are nostalgic for that.” free, and some shops lend or rent out Smartphones have suddenly sprout- And when push comes to shove, I There’s also a sense of backlash cameras to those who don’t already own ed like shiny bamboo shoots. People in realize that they’re right. That shot that against digital technology, and the emer- them. my tour group are squeezing in front of caught the drama of an accident, in a gence of what might be called a “slow I tried an informal version of this in me and elbowing me out of the way. dusty alley, deep in the medina, in photo” movement. Cleveland. The camera store owner, There’s a woman with not one but between souks, in Fes? Not mine. I “Our demographic is pretty young, so Scott — who has a Polaroid camera two phones happily clicking away. A missed the action. I was engrossed in we’re talking about a generation who tattooed on the inside of his forearm — man wearing tweed is hopping as he spooning up sauce with couscous at a grew up in digital, and they see our film lent me a camera. He set up a tripod, and snaps, which blocks a taller man be- cafe lunch. as a way to escape,” says Dave Bias, vice I leaned over awkwardly to look through hind him. I watch the tall guy drag over That image that made the Atlas president of Impossible America. Initial- the viewfinder, snapping a picture of a chair from somewhere and begin Mountains look luminescent, and ly, Impossible sold about 30 to 40 boys’ and girls’ bathroom signs at Lin- shooting what has to be a hawk’s-eye picked out a lantern moon? I didn’t refurbished Polaroid cameras a month — coln Park, then waiting for the chemicals view of the scene. take it. I was too busy skidding on found largely on eBay and through to react and produce a photo. Is the Duchess of Cambridge here? pebbles. Too busy poring over a map. pickers (people who find cameras at yard Tim, who took my picture, is a creative No, what the flashes are highlighting is, Too busy wiping my brow. sales). Today, it sells more than 2,500 director with an ad agency and shoots well, whisky. Images of a desk clerk It may be simple jealousy, but lately each month and has standing orders digital all the time for work. Shooting on pouring. Pictures of a drink. I’ve felt a secret, giddy relief when I through the end of the year. his Polaroid has made him look at As quickly as I can, I grab my enter a place where pictures aren’t But it’s not all about nostalgia, says pictures differently. “I used to go out and camera, set the settings, flip on the allowed. Is it a tropical garden in Bias. “For us, it’s showing that film has a shoot 300 photos, bam, bam, bam,” he flash, and — for reasons I’m not sure of Burma full of expansive blossoms and viable place in the modern world,” he says. “With film, you can’t do that. It’s too — something makes me stop. Just this enormous trees? I might see a butterfly says. “People can have a real physical expensive. You have to slow down. You once, I’m not quite up for battle. I slink against a branch without the scene photo — something they can touch, have to think before you shoot.” over to a plate of scones. being backlit by a dozen flashes. something tangible.” Slowing down forced me to notice What’s going on? The single-malt Is it an almost-famous restaurant in Next month, Impossible will take the things I would normally have over- shot: It will not be mine. Madrid? I’ll be able to actually taste ultimate step in the marriage of digital looked, like a chain-link fence painted Everyone else will snag much better and digest without a tablemate photo- and analog when it releases its first lavender, in front of some purple flowers. images than I will. They’ll be grabbing genically rearranging my food. Unruly hardware device, the Instant Lab. Rather I spent minutes — eons in a digital world Facebook traffic the very second they lakes of gravy, hills of mashed pota- than taking instant pictures on vintage — deliberating over how to frame one post them. toes? Do not sculpt. Here comes my cameras, the portable Instant Lab allows shot, mindful that I had to ration my I will drink my unrecorded whisky in knife. users to transfer digital images from an film. As we walked past abandoned disgrace. Can you find flavor in a photo? Can iPhone onto instant Impossible film. It houses and old churches, I was con- you sniff it? Roll it around on your will be demonstrated Sept. 19-29 at sumed with thinking about the composi- hen it comes to taking photos, I tongue? In these moments, I no longer Photoville (www.photovillenyc.org), a PHOTOS BY NATHANIEL GRANN FOR THE POST tion of my next picture. W almost always try hard. I dance a want to try. pop-up village in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Taking it slow: From top, Fuji That night, back at the hostel where I samba the minute I’m lucky enough to Suddenly I’m free — not just from “Instant Lab means that we no longer Astia 100F 35mm film; a car, a dog was staying, I put my instant photos in a reel a good shot in. But every once in a forests of clicking cellphones — but have to rely on these vintage cameras,” and a residence in morning light, safe place, already looking forward to while, I have an intrusive thought: How from the temptation to pull out my Bias says. “It makes sense. You go out on all in the District’s Truxton Circle; showing them (physically handing many tidbits from a vacation does a own. I can concentrate, not on things your travels, you want to stay light, you and a gate at the Bureau of them!) to friends at home. Then I walked traveler need? that might be worth recording, but on carry your iPhone and take thousands of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and up to the rooftop deck, looked out at the I’ve started to think that snapping the things that aren’t. pictures. Then you get home and can still Explosives in the District’s NoMa. twinkling Cleveland skyline and pulled strings of pictures is a kind of nervous A person’s face that isn’t craggy or make analog instant images without the Images were taken with a Polaroid out my digital camera. tic. A way to box up travel, show it off intriguing. A rattling sound that makes clunky camera. I see images all the time SX-70 camera using the I snapped a dozen shots before I got it and take it safely home. It seems like me think of music. A boring-looking bit that I think would look better on film Impossible Project’s PX 70 Color just right. the only convincing reason for a world of fencing that, for some reason, re- than on the iPhone screen.” Protection film. [email protected] that suddenly appears bored with plain minds me of home. Impossible film is not exactly like old experience (yawn, another day in When I get this gift of seconds that Polaroid film: The combination of chem- Kaplan is a freelance writer in Washington. Rome) until the instant it’s captured. are very happily pointless, I remember What makes a man hold up the something that I typically forget. I screen of his picture-enabled iPad to remember what it was like in the days block out a squadron of sun-bright before devices, before everyone on parrots in Brazil? What causes a wom- Earth was “wired.” INSTANT GRATIFICATION Land Camera to keep plus film, Land 503-978-0333 an in a safari jacket to pose for a series I make my mind up to turn over a You can buy Impossible Project film for old Camera photobooth shot, lesson and www.bluemooncamera.com of self-portraits? When it’s sunset. In fresh new leaf on my very next trip. Polaroid cameras at about 500 stores in lunch. Get everything but the camera for Sells new and refurbished cameras and Kenya. When a brushfire tints the sky. Don’t be encumbered, I remind myself. When there are giraffes — softly bend- Skip the technology, take a pass on North America, including the ones below: $50. typewriters; one of the few shops that still has an optical printing lab. Annual ing — only a few yards away? gear. Rare Medium Impossible Project Space customer photo show Dec. 7. Why do people point lenses at un- I have a plan, in fact. A plan to alert 425 Broadway, fifth floor 1321 E. Pine St. photographable rain in rain forests? Or myself when it’s time to pack. I’ll use New York Seattle Beau Photo Supplies shadowless snow on top of ice on top of my iPad, type in the date. I’ll set it up 212-219-3254 206-913-7538 1520 W. Sixth Ave. the Arctic Sea? just so. www.the-impossible-project.com www.raremediumseattle.com Vancouver, British Columbia Why do diners in a Hanoi noodle I’ll make sure that my device lays on The first Impossible shop in the country. Features entire spectrum of Polaroid 800-994-2328 joint forget the slurp, the steam, the an ear-splitting warning at exactly the Monthly 8x10 Portrait Days offer instant models from folding Land Cameras to www.beauphoto.com shrimp curled up inside their pho? moment when I’m filling my duffel. portraits for $40; next are Sept. 14-15 and Colorpacks. Partnering with Glazer’s Stocks new and used cameras, including Everyone likes images that are sharp “See more, snap less,” it will say. Oct. 26-27; reservations suggested. Free Camera (www.glazerscamera.com) for Polaroid, Holga, Lomographic and and evocative and good. But of every Don’t be encumbered. mouthful, at every meal? Don’t be the Tweed Man. Don’t be photo walk on Governors Island Sept. 22 Instant Photo Contest; entries due Sept. Hasselblad. Hosting an Impossible Project I’m the first to admit: Whether it’s a the Tall Man. and 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center/Long Island 20. photo contest. Vancouver’s first citywide Capture Photography Festival launches recipe or a blog, words arranged on Just go. City Oct. 20. Creative Manipulations Studio Space Junk Oct. 1. paper look a lot more polished when [email protected] Workshop Sept. 28 and 600 Camera 436 Frazier Ave. they mix with pictures. Colors are a fast Workshop Oct. 13, each $50. Chattanooga, Tenn. A&A Studios and fashionable crowd. A sentence Mandel is a travel journalist and author of Photoworks 423-531-6066 350 N. Ogden Ave. skulks around in horn-rimmed glasses. children’s books, including “Jackhammer 2077-A Market St. www.studiospacejunk.com Chicago Paragraphs hate parties. Pages are Sam” (Macmillan). San Francisco Year-old analog camera convenience store 312-278-1144 415-626-6800 with accessories including film, darkroom www.thevintagephotoshop.com www.photoworkssf.com chemicals and paper. Polaroid Art Show Carries a full line of vintage cameras, Veteran analog photography store, with Aug. 30-31, free. Polaroid workshops held specialty film and Polaroid gear. Home of Can you find flavor in a photo? Can you sniff it? Roll it refurbished Land Cameras as well as other on ad hoc basis. 312photobooth, with vintage chemical photobooths for public use and a Polaroid around on your tongue? In these moments, I no longer vintage Polaroids. Land Camera Blue Moon Camera & Machine photobooth available for rentals. Instructional Picnic in Golden Gate Park 8417 N. Lombard St. — M.D.G.K. want to try. Sept. 22. $200 buys you a refurbished Portland, Ore.