Bid farewell to Polaroid film
 

(CNN) -- Every day for a year, Tacey Willis looked for an eye-catching photo subject -- a ballerina, a rocker dude in a bookstore or three older ladies from the Red Hat Society. She allowed herself one shot each day, with only one piece of instant film.
Tacey Willis' "Day By Day Polaroid" project contains 365 photos, movies, songs and quotes.

Tacey Willis' "Day By Day Polaroid" project contains 365 photos, movies, songs and quotes.

But halfway through that year, Willis abruptly took the money she'd saved for a down payment on a car and bought every piece of Polaroid film she could find. Why? Because the Polaroid Corp. announced it would stop making instant film. And without it her project, "Day by Day Polaroid," would never be complete.

Sixty years after Polaroid introduced its first instant camera, the company's iconic film is disappearing from stores.

Although Polaroid says the film should be available into 2009, this is the final month of its last production year.

Eclipsed by digital photography, Polaroid's white-bordered prints -- and the anticipation they created as their ghostly images gradually came into view -- will soon be things of the past.

From David Hockney's famous Polaroid art compositions, to the line, "Shake it like a Polaroid picture" from OutKast's hit "Hey Ya!", Polaroid instant film has embedded itself in popular culture.

The public's reaction to Polaroid's announcement reflects that. Blogs lament the loss. Polaroid-fan groups have formed on Facebook. On Amazon.com, a four-pack of 10 exposures is selling for $64 -- nearly $1.60 per photo.

The announcement hit Willis, an artist in Los Angeles, California, especially hard. She began her "Day by Day Polaroid" project in June 2007 and still had four months to finish. "I really freaked out when they came out with the memo," she said.

Her project -- a book manuscript waiting for a publisher -- contains 365 photos accompanied by related songs, movies and quotations.

So why did she choose Polaroid and not some other type of photo? Willis is simply in love with that little white rectangle.

"It always turns out completely different than it looks in the viewpoint," she said. "At first I felt frustrated. But then, as an artist, it made it more fun. You had to let it go. I like sitting down with each picture. It's like a baby. You put so much art and soul into it."
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Willis isn't alone in her devotion. Minneapolis, Minnesota, graphic designer Sean Tubridy founded SavePolaroid.com with some friends he met through a Polaroid Flickr group. The Web site's mission: to persuade another company to produce the instant film.

"For me, watching a Polaroid picture develop is like watching a memory form right before your eyes," Tubridy wrote on his Web site.

"With instant film, you don't get to make the choice of whether or not a picture is 'good enough' to make a print. You can't just hit delete because someone was making a weird face, or the framing wasn't quite right or in some way the image doesn't live up to the unattainable idea of perfection...

"It's life, and chances are, we'll find it in a box years later and be thankful that we have it -- dirty shorts, nervous smile and all."

SavePolaroid.com has about 4,000 members -- 573 of whom uploaded stories on why they think Polaroid instant film is worth keeping.

In a statement, Polaroid acknowledges its film's "loyal and passionate following," but says the company is looking to the future. Sales of all film types have plummeted this decade as digital photography became the norm. See how Polaroid's instant camera works »

Tubridy agrees that digital photography has its advantages, but he believes that instant film, and its 20th-century technology, still has a purpose.

"The biggest misconception is that digital is a perfect replacement for [instant film]," he said. "I don't use Polaroids to replace [digital], to take to parties and events. That's not really practical and I don't think anyone would argue that. It's just something special at times when you want something different."

For others, it's more about nostalgia and their Polaroid-snapshot memories, which make it harder to let go of their Instamatic past.

Sean Burns, of Columbia City, Oregon, fondly remembers the cross-country trips his family took every summer for more than 20 years. They traveled thousands of miles, covering practically every road west of the Mississippi, and almost every moment is documented on Polaroid film.

"Dad thought Polaroid was the greatest invention ever conceived and stubbornly remains loyal to the product to this day," Burns wrote on iReport.com. His father, Otis Burns, received his first Polaroid camera in elementary school in the 1940s.

"He was so intrigued and fascinated by the instant developed pictures that he became almost religiously devoted to Polaroid and refused to accept any other form of film," Burns said. iReport.com: Watch Burn's dad use his Polaroid camera
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Otis Burns still takes the same camera on his road trips today. At every motel where he spends the night, he takes a photo of the view from the room -- whether it's a pastoral landscape, a brick wall or the parking lot. And on the back of each photo he writes the details of the setting: the room number, the town and the date.

"Sometimes magic seems to happen and a deceptively simple picture outside a Motel 6 can say a thousand words," Sean Burns said of his father's collection. "Polaroid photos take [only] a minute to develop, but sometimes art takes decades."

wtf, i thought they stopped making polaroid film years ago?

Goodbye Polaroid. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on you over the years. You helped me grow as a photographer and allowed me to use you on commercial shoots to test my lighting. You always gave me what I needed and for that I'll be forever grateful. May you rest in peace!

:Oh crap

:2 cents:

ARG, am I the only photographer that has a bit of a sentimental heart and hurts a tiny bit with this?

I just watched a piece on "How it works" or "Modern Marvels" on the evolution of the Polaroid camera.

Pretty interesting. Made millions.

My mother has albums and albums of Polaroids taken while we were growing up. They manage to stay in incredibly good shape. They've kept their color a lot better than my developed film of the 80's.

Here's one scanned that's around 40 years old:

http://www.onlinebeach.com/metutu7ish.jpg

And for those of us old enough to remember wanting to take "naughty" pictures before digital, Polaroid just couldn't be beat.

bye bye polaroid

OHHHHH the heartache!!!! Whatever will I do with my Hassy now??? I don't want it to become a paperweight!!!

have great memories of polaroid

I shall miss you, Polaroid. :(

I still have naked Polaroids of ex's floating around in boxes somewhere. RIP Polaroid :Oh crap

They did actually.

A guy from montreal who organises a yearly party for the very rich of this world (people who has seen it all), wanted to throw a 'last polariod picture' party.

To create demand and hype he bought all the leftover stocks EVERYWHERE. He started getting a lot of press about it. He even burned half of it to get more press. It ended up having so much demand, that a couple weeks before the party, polariod announced that they would restart the production... needless to say that the party never happened.

Get over it. Are you going to cry about the Beta tape too?

here is the next generation of Polaroid type product

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QFOT3-hoooY&e
digital camera with instant printer

Paper is made by http://www.zink.com/
It was invented at Polaroid labs, but Zink is a stand alone company now

boooo, the first ever pic of a naked ex girlfriend of mine was on my trusty old polaroid..


cray to think people are growing up knowing nothing but digital and will never know how polaroids rescued us from days of waiting for our film to develope at like $10 a roll.

booo? When was the last time you supported Polaroid and bought some film?

hey firecracker here's a tip

(CNN) -- Every day for a year, Tacey Willis looked for an eye-catching photo subject -- a ballerina, a rocker dude in a bookstore or three older ladies from the Red Hat Society. She allowed herself one shot each day, with only one piece of instant film.

Tacey Willis' "Day By Day Polaroid" project contains 365 photos, movies, songs and quotes.

But halfway through that year, Willis abruptly took the money she'd saved for a down payment on a car and bought every piece of Polaroid film she could find. Why? Because the Polaroid Corp. announced it would stop making instant film. And without it her project, "Day by Day Polaroid," would never be complete.

Sixty years after Polaroid introduced its first instant camera, the company's iconic film is disappearing from stores.

Although Polaroid says the film should be available into 2009, this is the final month of its last production year.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/08/p...tml?eref=ib_us

see nice and short gets the point across and for those that want to read more they can simply click the link.

I used one to document a garden I grew years ago way out in the woods. Every time I see those pics I smile.
Plus the naked ex's!! Those were the digital of the day!

that shit was dead to all of us years ago

Man i used to love these when i was a kid...taking pictures of upskirts lol

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncateg...polaroid_2.jpg

One of my girlfriends would only let me take those "naughty" photos of her if we used Polaroid...... Little did she know that I've since scanned them in.

Her ass is mine online forever.

I don't even know anybody, that isn't a professional photographer, that even buys normal film these days.

you can still find polaroid film in small town wal-mart stores, because no one in those areas really buys it. a friend of mine needed it for a photography class and went to some backwoods town in pennsylvania and found a ton there.

Love the picture, thanks for sharing
 

Love the picture!