Untitled #5, from Asser Levy Pool. 2010. 20x24 Polaroid. (c) Greg Miller
I blame kids off school, bike rides in the woods, weddings, camping and The Wire. It’s the silly season and no doubt I have neglected the blog a bit. Blogging is a bit like printing in the darkroom – at this time of the year you’d rather be outside, just hanging.
A bit like Greg Miller who hung out at the Asser Levy Pool – an outdoor pool in Manhattan. He didn’t have his camera phone or some digicam with him. He didn’t have a nice 35mm slr, fancy pants medium format ‘blad, or some big n’ bendy 4*5 neither. Nope, he brought with him a 20*24 inch giant polaroid camera and the results, like the one above are just, well, dope (as the kids might say in NYC).
The 20x24 Polaroid Camera. Photo courtesy 20x24 Studio.
I have no idea what this super rare polaroid film must cost. 20*24 – I mean that’s two feet long on the long edge and just under that on the short edge. When you bring paper that size into the darkroom, you have some negative that you have already selected from a contact print, test printed at maybe 8*10, hummed and hawed a bit, and maybe then decided that perhaps it’s good enough for a sheet of that 20*24 paper from the box of 25 that you bought from Gunn’s on Wexford St. six months ago, and don’t want to waste ‘cos it’s well, a bit expensive.
You get a lend of the 20*24 Polaroid camera though, and you have no negative to choose from. You are there, with your subject, with your shot, and when you open that shutter you gotta hope you get it right.
And then, right in front of the people who have just posed for you, you reveal the print. The giant, 20*24 inch, full technicolour print right there in front of you, moments after it has been shot. Magic.
Photographer Greg Miller wrote about the day on his blog here. From what I can see on the web, the photographs are just beautiful. I’d love to see them in real life – I’m sure the screen does them no justice.
– Rory
cork analogue photographers 