More Polaroid Portraits

[jb7]

great stuff-
you must have had some powerful lighting for those?

I've never seen a big polaroid, would love to get a look at them...

How did these sittings come about, and did you do many more?

[Frank Petronio]

In it's heyday you could book the Polaroid 20x24 studio in London, Boston, NYC, Tokyo, and ? plus they would send one on the road. In the mid-90s when I was tempted I think it cost $600 plus $30 per pull. It came with a technician too. Didn't they use like six of the largest Elinchrom packs for basic lighting?

But I am sure Christopher will give us the details since he actually used one.

[benrains]

The 20x24 Polaroid cameras are still around and in use. John Reuter and friends have the equipment for making the developer packs, and are close to having everything in place to manufacture their own developer chemicals- http://20x24studio.com/

They're also running a portrait special next week, $1000.00 for 3 photos-
http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?...5895375&ref=mf

[cjbroadbent]

Have a look at Joyce Tennyson's big polaroid stuff.
I was once working in a N.Y. studio next door to where she was doing her edition of the Pirelli Calendar and dropped in because we'd met in Italy. She was getting an amazing one good shot in three - Polaroid technicians are really stingy with film. I got the idea that the art-director was secreting the non-keepers for auction.
Joyce has a way with polaroid and has a lot more experience on the big camera than most.
My go on the big machine was insignificant. I did an ad campaign for the SX and got invited, with others, to try out the machine in wheels. There were Elincas and it took some argument to use them bounced. I missed the nasty cheek light that was not turned off for Panza's shot. Colour polaroids come best with soft light but you can get through a box of 8x10 before you get the hues right.

[r.e.]

They say on that website that they have enough film "to last many years".

I thought that Polaroid film had a limited lifespan. At least, it couldn't go in the freezer. No?

On their Facebook page, they also say that the Dutch group (Impossible Project ) is indeed looking at bringing out film in larger formats.

[Vaughn]

In it's heyday you could book the Polaroid 20x24...

One of the 20x24 visited our university many years ago. I assisted the photographer (one of our professors who go a grant to use the camera) and made "ghost" prints, though I don't think they were every used. After the print was fully developed, I transferred what was left of the image onto watercolor paper.

Vaughn

[benrains]

They say on that website that they have enough film "to last many years".

I thought that Polaroid film had a limited lifespan. No?

On their Facebook page, they also say that the Dutch group (Impossible Project ) is indeed looking at bringing out film in larger formats.

The 20x24 folks bought out Polaroid's remaining emulsion coated film stock for the those cameras. The emulsion supposedly lasts a very long time. It's the developer chemicals that have the limited shelf life. (The developer packs are loaded separately from the film with the 20x24 camera.) I've read they've enough film to last them at least 4 years at their current usage rates, and they've enough good old stock developer chemicals to last them a while, but they're going to soon be manufacturing their own developer.

I've heard the same about the Impossible Project doing LF films, but I don't know. I think their main focus is still with replacing integral film. The pack/sheet films are very different beasts. And even if they did come out with an 8x10 replacement, I doubt many hobbyists would be able to afford it, but I'd love for them to prove my skepticism unfounded.

[r.e.]

In the mid-to-late 1980s, there was an instructor in the Fine Arts department at the University of Ottawa, who went by the name Evergon, who made 40"x80" Polaroids. At the time, his work was controversial, but he had a following and I recall being quite struck by prints that I saw at an exhibit of his work. They were unlike any photographs that I had seen before. He now teaches at Concordia University in Montreal. Info on him: www.evergon.ca

I wonder who else worked with Polaroid's 40"x80" cameras.

[PViapiano]

There are things (tones) going on here that I can't do. Is that a negative?

Christopher,

I just checked my notes (this photograph was made in 2006 with natural window light), and it is a Type 55 neg scan. The original PS file shows a global contrast correction of the scan with levels and a burn-in vignette at the borders.

An optical print with the negative made on Ilford WT paper, shows slightly less burning and slightly reduced contrast in the face.

I'd like to print this one again, since I had just started darkroom work back then...

[PViapiano]

Oh...and I love the two large Polaroid portraits by Chris! Everything about them...!