Polaroid

Polaroid announced this week that it will cease production of it's iconic instant film.

Damn! I love using my Polaroid camera and I'm pretty bummed that film is going to be extremely hard to acquire after 2009. I am also sad for the 150 employees in Massachusetts who will lose their jobs because of this. I understand that it isn't profitable anymore due to digital photography... but it's so fun! Now I'm afraid I'll be even stingier with the film than I was before.

I'm also particularly sentimental about Polaroids. Justin and I got ours a few years ago during a stressful period in our relationship. We were both too busy with school and work and bunny health issues and our own health issues and our money situation was dismal. The result was that we were spending our limited time together running errands and complaining about our situation. We were both getting depressed so we decided to try and make an effort to do something fast, simple and nice every once in awhile with each other.

We decided to take portraits of each other with the Polaroid camera as a way to pause and pay attention to one another. When I look back on these pictures, I remember the exact way I felt and how hard that time was for me. The portraits became less moody and more fun as winter moved into spring and our life got itself sorted out. I think that the portraits we took of one another were instrumental in our emergence from a crappy mentality. We have them displayed in our living room and I use them as reminder to appreciate each other and to be optimistic when I'm feeling stressed.

The Polaroid set above was taken while each of us had a Vladmaster viewing experience. Actaeon At Home was the piece we were watching. I just bought another one last week for Justin's birthday.