What will Andre 3000 suggest listeners be shaking now?
It’s hard to say, but it won’t be Polaroid pictures. Polaroid announced in February they will no longer be producing the instant film that so many were waving around and sticking in their armpits for decades.
Art history junior Diana Ledesma says she’s more than disappointed. She has a Vivitar slide printer, Polaroid Vintage Land Camera and Polaroid 669 film.
“When I first moved out here, I bought the camera and slide printer because there aren’t many public darkroom facilities,” she says. “It’s been tough to have photography as a hobby here with the exception of digital, which is never as much fun.”
Photography junior Sean Suriano agrees. Suriano is a fan of the Polaroid, saying it’s pretty much instant gratification.
“Nowadays people have [instant gratification] with digital cameras, but when the Polaroid came out it was a different story,” he says. “I’m sad to see them go.”
Suriano says it’s fun to do something different and that’s what the Polaroid was. He says he and a few photographer friends used to carry old Polaroid cameras around for snapshots of whatever they happened to be doing.
Art junior Lindsey Kukulski says now she has to add a Polaroid camera to her list of things to buy on eBay.
“I’m shocked that the Polaroid camera would be discontinued,” she says. “I view Polaroids as a very artistic and vintage form of photography.”
Kukulski says Polaroids have a certain artistic feel to them, much like the use of black and white instead of color or vertical shots instead of horizontal.
eBay, Craigslist and thrift stores might offer a solution for those in search of the “instant gratification” that is not digital. However, another solution for Mac users is closer, faster and free.
At www.poladroid.net, Mac users can download and launch the free Polaroid application. Download the application, drop photos in the Polaroid camera in the corner of the desktop and hear the familiar sound of a Polaroid snapping a picture.
Once the photo is out, it has yet to develop just like a real Polaroid picture. Select it and shake it as long as it takes. Once the picture is fully developed, share it, print it, post it, whatever. It looks like an authentic Polaroid picture. The application will only let the downloader develop 10 pictures, much like an actual pack of Polaroid film.
PC users will be happy to know the Polaroid application is coming soon for them, too.
Reach the reporter at lauren.cusimano@asu.edu.
