That’s not just a print, it’s a fetish. This fetish is about touching a picture that just came out of the camera few moments ago, waiting for chemistry to shape the skin of your model inside the Polaroid frame.
Nothing is more redundant than the expression “instant photography”, if we refer that to digital photography. The picture appears on the screen of your iPhone just a moment after you shot it and 2 minutes later it will uploaded in Instagram. Before digital, for many decades, “instant photography” meant Polaroid. There’s a lot of overlap between digital and instant photography, but what lacks in digital is the object. The object is something you can touch, the print, suddenly available in your hands; then you have the frame, that was not meant to be ‘cool’: it was just needed to hold the chemistry (i.e. developer), many layers, the negative and the positive edges. Did you know that inside each Polaroid print there’s also a tiny sponge and an incredibly low quantity of C4 explosive? Now you do.
Many people stated that digital is about ‘images’, while analog (i.e. 35mm, medium and large formats) is about ‘pictures’. Stated this as true, Polaroid is about ‘prints’. But in my humble opinion, this is just a philosophical matter.
The incredible association between skin and the Polaroid is not just about the look, which is actually interensting by its own; the look of Polaroid prints guides the photographer to a severe discipline due to the fact that mistakes are not forgiven and Polaroid cartridges cost a lot.
The incredible association between skin and the Polaroid is not just about the look, which is actually interesting by its own; the look of Polaroid prints guides the photographer to a severe discipline due to the fact that mistakes are not forgiven and Polaroid cartridges cost a lot. The side fetish of the Polaroid print is a tactile stimulation, due to the rough external shield of the frame. The result of the two is: once you got your first well exposed Polaroid picture, you will be pervaded by the overwhelming feeling of the picture arousal, with a secondary tactile excitation. From this point of view, there’s no difference between photography and sex.
First of all, skin just appear awesome in Polaroid prints, just as it is. That’s why it is one of my preferred means for portraits. Instant analog photos have a unique, imperfect charm that many people love, a proof of a trustable image.
As Quentin Tarantino says about digital filming: “People who like shooting in digital simply stopped believing in the magic of movies”. I think we can say the same thing about the magic of photography: you can capture it on film.
The Polaroid film is a mean that is far away from risking to be discontinued, since the majority of users are the ones who start using it for the first time (and aged 15-30). Just try it, get touched by the experience of touching a moment. Experience the fetish of touching skin on a Polaroid skin. Get aroused.
(this column was previously published in issue 9 of Fluffer Magazine)
By Fluffer Magazine in Fluffer Magazine
136 pages, published 12/8/2015
Inside issue 009 ~ english text and photos!
FEAT. PHOTOGRAPHERS: Emanuele Cassina, Alessandro Panelli, Mattia Crepaldi, Cristiano Ossoli, Michele Maglio, Corrado Dalcò, Marco Gallico, Michele Bacci, Reka Nyari, Marta Ulisse, Riccardo Scrocca, Francesco Quinzi, Nicola D’Orta, Debora Di Donato, Larry…
