Polaroid is dead, long live Fujiroid

My new favorite toy is the Fuji Instax 55i. Our fixer had one in China, once I saw it I had to have one myself. So far they are mostly sold in the Asian market. You can read about it on The Photo Village and on Lomography I bought mine on eBay from a seller in Hong Kong. Oddly it arrived faster then most internet orders within the US.

I've been having a great time taking this little instant camera to parties. The only downside is I tend to give people the credit cards sized pictures the camera produces so I have only a few samples to show here.

It's no surprise that Fuji's quality is better, more consistent and the film cheaper then Polaroid was. It's easy to be nostalgic for Polaroid now that they've passed on but it's also easy to forget how bad their quality control could be. For the moment the Fuji Instax is great fun and should be fantastic for a lot the fans of Polaroid pack cameras. The big news on the instant film front is even more exciting.

thirteen-million seconds, that's how long they say we need to wait for the Impossible but the promise is new, better instant film. The last time we talked about this it was an advanced rumor. Now with ownership of a fully kitted out Polaroid factory, a fancy website and some strong buzz I'm getting hopeful they'll pull it off.

Impossible b.v. has been founded with the concrete aim to re-invent and re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras.

Therefore Impossible b.v. has acquired the complete film production equipment in Enschede (NL) from Polaroid, has signed a 10-year lease agreement on the factory building; and has engaged the most experienced team of Integral Film experts worldwide.

American Jesus

My specialty is finding the right real people to photograph for my client's campaigns. The preference of working with real people has developed over my career but it comes down to finding people with great character and personality. Since I have just released my newest series of real people portraits titled American Jesus I thought this would be a good time to talk about one of my techniques for finding great people to photograph. We have tried and are willing to try any approach. We street-cast, post ads online, search for specific looks, recruit our friends...

The method that has worked the best over the years is taking the studio on the street and photographing people as I meet them. This eliminates all the vagaries of scheduling. The drawback is the loss of the control we get in the studio. The big upside is we often get to borrow characters, energy and emotion from an event going on around us. American Jesus was photographed during a wild Easter event in Dolores Park. We heard about a Jesus look-a-like contest that was going on and went to see how people would dress up.

Here is San Francisco it's often windy - backgrounds, light stands, soft-boxes and flags don't do well in the wind. I've been refining my tools over the years and I've been learning what works along the way. The recent shoot went really well thanks to a cube we built out of steel pipe and Kee-safety corners. With Matthews silks to diffuse the natural light.

Here is the cube:


My assistants might not love this idea as much as I do, all that pipe is heavy but we have been hauling around hundreds of pounds of sandbags so its kind of a wash. The cube is just as heavy as all that sand but it has structural strength that light stands don't offer. The other great thing about the cube is we can clamp strobe heads right to it reducing the number of stands for people to trip on.

Setting up:


Photographing a Jesus impersonator:


As with all of my projects the tools are just a bunch of gear, it's the team I work with that makes the pictures happen. I couldn't have done American Jesus without my Iana Simeonov producing, my brother Stephan helping with logistics, my assistant Michael Blumenfeld and Chrysta Geffin who loved up the photos in post.



-Michael

A break from the studio for a shoot in Yosemite with some very cool kids.

I've been working as a photographer for many years now. Maybe I’m jaded about some things. There are still a few things about this business which are exciting no matter how long you are at it. Getting your work on the cover of a magazine is really fun. Getting to meet and photograph really interesting people in Yosemite and then getting on the cover of the magazine makes for a pretty un-beatable day at the office. Big thanks to Adina LoBiondo and Judith Lewis at Sierra Magazine and to the kids from Crenshaw and Dorsey highs for being so great.

This was my favorite image from the shoot and I think it also would have been a great choice for the cover. Thanks to the Sierra's designers for giving it a lovely full-page ride on the opening spread.

Shelton Johnson was such a captivating speaker it was hard not to stop photographing him and just listen to his stories. A 22-year veteran of the National Park Service, Johnson has been researching and writing about Buffalo Soldiers who protected the park in its early days. Look for his upcoming book Gloryland, rumors are there will be a movie too.

Selected

I got my work into Viisual.com (the misspelled but highly selective online portfolio site). Take a look at my listing but be sure to brows the MIX to see tons of great photography.

A glimmer of good news about Polaroid in today's (May26, 2009) New York Times. A handful of former Polaroid employees are trying to manufacture film in Holland. Meanwhile Fuji has a line of instant point and shoot cameras called the Instax, the mini 55i being the most interesting. It makes credit card size instant pictures. We saw people using these in China but so far they are not available directly in the USA. Check out Lomography.com for more on the Instax.

Hot Springs Cove, Tofino

If you're ever on Vancouver Island I highly recommend Hot Springs Cove in Tofino.

Okay, its not from the Gowlandflex but the camera is just a tool, its the work that matters.

Goodbye type 55

Polaroid announced today it will close factories and cease production of all instant films. You can see the AP story here: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8209093
I'll try to stockpile some type 55 film, but the stuff doesn't age that well so it will all be gone in a few years. It would be great if Fuji would take over some of this business as they have shown some interest in 4x5 and medium format instant pack films, but it is hard to imagine them expanding those offerings.