Light Leaks Magazine

Light Leaks
Issue 11
L o w
F i d e l i t y
P h o t o g r a p h y
Special Issue
:
polaroid
Interview:
Joachim Knill
Emulsion
Lifts
It’s Hip to
Be Square!
Gallery
POLAROID
Film
Manipulation
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Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks
L o w
F i d e l i t y
P h o t o g r a p h y
Publisher | Rachel Morris (Light Leaks Press)
Supervising Editor | Steph Parke
Issue 11 Contents
Operations Manager | Michael Barnes
3 The First Word
By Steph Parke
Gallery Photo Editor | Aline Smithson
Editors | Janet Penny, Mr. E. Cipher
4 Interview
Would You Like To Supersize That?
Joachim Knill Interview
Contributing Writers | Steph Parke, Jay Heuman,
Aline Smithson, Kevin Pointer, Wallace Billingham,
By Jay Heuman
Sean Rohde, C. Gary Moyer
14 Gallery
Design and Production | Michael Barnes
Polaroid: Your Last Best Shot
Photo Editor, Aline Smithson
E-mail: lightleakspress@rogers.com
36 DIY
Web site: www.lightleaks.org
Polaroid Emulsion Lifts
Fax: 1-866-220-0480
By Kevin Pointer
40 Field Stories
Printed in Canada
The Grand Illusion
by The Lowe-Martin Group
By Wallace Billingham
www.lmgroup.com
42 Showcase
Sean Tubridy
© Light Leaks Press ISSN # 1911-429X
46 Showcase
Grant Hamilton
50 Feature
It’s Hip to Be Square!
By Sean Rohde
54 DIY
SX-70 and Film Manipulation
By C. Gary Moyer
56 COMING UP
ISSUE 12 SNEAK PEEK
Cover Photo By Derek Vincent
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
The First Word
I
By Steph Parke
t’s no secret that I love Polaroid. If you’ve
seen the last couple of issues, the photos
I’ve included here have been Polaroids, and
if you’ve taken a look at my Flickr photostream
lately, you’ll find it virtually inundated with
‘Roids.
I’ve got a sick addiction, a frenzied
fascination. I made a Polaroid wall in my house,
in my heart. I look almost daily on Ebay and
Craigslist for SX-70s. The clomp/whir noise from
my SLR 680 and SX-70s plays in my head like a
song. My poor husband’s even got the sound
memorized, and can imitate it quite well. And
you should see my refrigerator. Oh boy.
The idea to do an all-Polaroid issue came to me
in the middle of the night, as most crazy ideas
do, and after a period of quizzing the locals (you
fine folks) we decided to go forward with it at
your behest, and we hope you like what you see.
Inside, you’ll find Jay Heuman’s interview with
Joachim Knill, and Joachim’s larger-than-life
Polaroids; Sean “it’s hip to be square” Rohde’s
type 80 series article, Kevin Pointer’s ditty on
emulsion lifts, and Wally’s rock star night with
Styx. And speaking of rock stars, our Showcase
artists this issue are Grant Hamilton and Sean
Polaroid truly is a magical medium, and one that will be sorely missed not only
by the art community, but also by the general public. Everyone knows Polaroid!
While Fuji continues to make instant peel-apart film (thank you Fuji!), it is my
dream that some knight in shining emulsion will swoop in and save integral 600.
As evidenced by the amount in my fridge door and crisper, that’s clearly my favorite
film, and one that I can’t imagine living without. Sometimes I think about what I’ll
Tubridy, two creative and fun-loving Polaroid
do with my last pack and then get sad and baffled and move on to other thoughts,
photogs. Of course, you’ll also find “Your Last
but I wonder if I’ll just shoot it like it’s any other pack, or if I’ll hang on to it for
Best Shot” gallery stuffed with instant goodness.
a few more years. I might use it for portraits of family and friends, mementos of
This gallery theme drew more submissions
days gone by. I might just keep it in the fridge and let it live there. I’m sure I’m not
than we’ve ever had, so thank you to all who
alone in this. All you Polaroid lovers out there, what are you going to use your last
submitted!
pack for? Whatever it may be, I hope it’s something special.
Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 11, Polaroid
Interview
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SUPERSIZE THAT?
JOACHIM KNILL TALKS ABOUT LARGE FORMAT
POLAROIDS, MIXING MEDIA … AND MORE!
Questions by Jay Heuman
Answers and Images by Joachim Knill
Jay Heuman: To design and build the world’s largest Polaroid camera, that produces
20 x 30 inch prints, is quite remarkable. What about Polaroid technology inspires
you?
Joachim Knill: It started out with just liking the painterly Technicolor-like look
of Polaroid film. Then, in art school, we had the 20 x 24 Polaroid camera housed
there. I never actually used the camera there, but loved almost anything that
was produced with it because of that same look, combined with the sheer size
and incredible resolution that rendered the images as something else than a
photograph—images so sharp that they appeared almost beyond real. Later, I was
working on 4 x 5 Polaroid transfers printed from slides of trees and quickly found
Photo by Elsa Dorfman
them to be too small. It was then that I decided to build my own large format
Polaroid to produce huge transfers.
As I finished my camera, my work changed; I never actually did those large
transfers of trees. I really liked the process of being able to set up a scene and
immediately get a result, thus having the whole image-making process take place
in the studio with instant feedback between the set building and the imaging
process.
I also treasure the concept of creating a photograph which has been exposed with
the actual light emitted by the subject. It’s like the Polaroid is the actual witness
of the scene it depicts, rather than other photography where the print is exposed
with light from an enlarger light bulb.
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
Liberty
Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 11, Polaroid
Gallery
Gallery Editor, Aline Smithson
polaroid
A
your last best shot
few months ago, when this issue was planned,
the future of Polaroid film looked pretty dark and
dismal. I won’t say that the sun is shining again,
but attempts are being made to bring back certain films and
other manufacturers are entering the market, and that’s a
good thing.
That being said, it was a cloudless day in terms of
submissions. In fact, it’s the most we’ve ever received, and
unfortunately, way more than we can fit on to these pages.
Bravo to everyone for such interesting and varied work and
thank you for taking the time to submit.
On another note, I was standing at the newsstand the other day, and I couldn’t find one photography
magazine that made me want to part with my money. So many great fine art photography magazines have
closed up shop and disappeared. Please know that Light Leaks is a labor of love and the only way it stays
afloat is by your subscriptions. If you don’t have one, get one. Or two.
And finally, when you submit an image, make sure it’s nice and clean, sized properly, and well scanned. We
lose some great images to “spotty” submissions!
14
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
St James Bathing Houses, Eldore’ Wood, El Dorado Hills, CA, USA
Hyperion Bridge with Lamp, Ann Mitchell, Burbank, CA,USA
photosbyeldore@yahoo.com, Polaroid SX 70 Land Camera
www.ann-mitchell.com, Vintage Speed Graphic
Untitled, Luis Prieto, Rome, Italy, www.luisprieto.com
My First Polaroid Emulsion Lift, Balazs Sprenc, Taksony, Hungary
Hand-made pinhole Polaroid camera
www.lostinpixels.hu. Holga GCFN + Polaroid back + expired Polaroid 88 film
Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 11, Polaroid
15
Ride the Lightning, Nathan Higgins, Penarth, Vale of
City of Glass, Chris A. Fraser, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Glamorgan, UK, vegas_hooker@hotmail.co.uk
popflashphoto@yahoo.ca, Polaroid OneStep 600
Polaroid 2000 Land Camera
16
Marvão, Tiago Luís, Lisboa, Portugal
Snow in Paris, Albin Brassart, Paris, France, albinbrassart@free.fr
www.flickr.com/photos/b1p0l2r, Polaroid 636
Polaroïd SX-70 Land Camera Model 2
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
Blue, Alison Garnett, Toronto, ON, Canada, www.mylalaland.com, Polaroid SX-70
26
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
***, Alexey Kurbatov, Vologda, Russia
http://www.flickr.com/photos/_grizzly_/
I Dreamt of Wolves, Jenny Coffman, Canton, OH, USA
Polaroid 680, Polaroid 780 Film
http://www.ghostsinthemachine.org, Polaroid Land Automatic 104
Bec, Daniel Nevin, Perth, Australia
Empty Nest, Rebecca Pendel, Farrell, PA, USA
daniel.nevin@gmail.com, Polaroid One Step, Time Zero film
http://rebecca.my-expressions.com/, SX-70
Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 11, Polaroid
27
Demolition Derby, Hell Yeah!, Amanda Moore, Polaroid SLR 680, 600 Film
Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 11, Polaroid
31
Emulsion Lifts
A
By Kevin Pointer
n emulsion lift is the process of separating the
image emulsion from certain Polaroid peelapart films by soaking the film in hot water and
then transferring it to another substrate. Emulsion lifts are
usually done with Polaroid color films (Types 669, 59, 559,
and 809) but can also be done with black and white films
(Types 664, 54, 554, and 804). Black and white emulsion lifts
require the use of boiling water. I usually make my lifts onto
watercolor paper, but a variety of substrates can be used
such as canvas, wood or glass.
The Process
The print must be dry before trying to lift. Drying can be helped along with a blow dryer but it is best to let prints dry overnight. Older prints
work fine, though they may need to soak for a longer period of time to separate the emulsion. I’ve successfully lifted ten-year-old prints.
Cover the back of the print with contact paper
to keep the paper backing from disintegrating
in the water.
Cut off the white edges of the print, or leave
them on to have a translucent border around
the image.
Set up two trays, one with at least 160°F water
and the second with room temperature water.
Soak your receptor paper in the room
temperature water for a minute, then move to
a flat surface and squeegee off excess water.
36
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
Field Stories
By Wallace Billingham
The
Grand
Illusion
STYX IN CONCERT AS SEEN BY A POLAROID
W
hen the news broke in February of 2008 that
with the guys and listening to the music of Pink Floyd, Kansas, Kiss,
the once great Polaroid Corporation would no
REO and, perhaps my favorite band of all time, Styx. Somewhere
longer be making instant film, it hit me with
packed away in a box in my attic, I have a large collection of funny
great sadness. While I hadn’t really shot with a Polaroid for quite
square pictures from that era. You could not really call them art
some time, it took me back to the good old days of the 1970s and
but they stand as a record of my life at the time. Wherever I went,
1980s, when I shot many hundreds of Polaroids while hanging out
my Polaroid went with me, and funny square pictures were sure to
with my friends. There was just something magical about the film
follow.
popping out of the camera and then watching it develop before
For this very special all Polaroid issue of Light Leaks I wanted to
your eyes.
do something really special. I wanted to have one last hurrah that
As a geeky, zit-faced, long haired boy from South Baltimore,
would be a bridge in time and take me back to the days when I hung
Maryland, I could always find refuge from the world by hanging
out with Mike, Tommy, Joe, Jamie and Kellee.
Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 11, Polaroid
39
42
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
Clown Stripes
46
Black Yellow
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
Feature
’
It’s hip
to be
square!
By Sean Rohde
I
t’s a sad fact, but Polaroid is on its way out. But this
My Square Shooter, modified with a Colorpack II front so it can use all
isn’t the first time the company has discontinued a
Type 80 formats.
line of instant films. The last roll film (Type 40) was
produced around 2001. There was an earlier, smaller roll
film format (Type 20) that disappeared in the early 1970s.
Most recently (aside from “the end of Polaroid”) was the
discontinuation of all Type 80 pack films in 2006.
Type 80s
Type 84 - 100 ISO, black and white
Type 80s are square-format Polaroids, or almost square
at 2-3/4” x 2-7/8”. Introduced in the early 1970s, Type 80s
Type 85 - 80 ISO, with print and negative
were touted as a cheaper format than previous films,
Type 87 - 3000 ISO , black and white
including the 100 series of film, which are designed with
Type 88 - 70 ISO, color
the same style pack as Type 80s but are rectangles at
Type 89 - 125 ISO, color
2 7/8” x 3 3/4”.
Viva (non-U.S. market only) - 80 ISO, color
Along with the film, the second series of hard case
Viva (non-U.S. market only) - 3000 ISO, black and white
cameras were introduced (the first being for Type 20 roll
Type 80 Chocolate, sepia
film). Previous cameras were all folders with bellows.
These new cameras were cheap, around $19.99, and were
marketed as such to appeal to a wider market. Soon to
follow were cheaper hard case Type 100 cameras. The first
Type 80 camera was aptly named the “Square Shooter”.
50
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
Chocolate is currently available from Unsaleable and is a mix of color and black-and-white chemistry.
Choco Canyon
Choco Hut
Type 85 produces both a print and a high-quality negative.
Wilma Print
Light Leaks Magazine
Wilma Negative
Issue 11, Polaroid
51
DIY
POLAROID SX-70
Time Zero and Artistic
TZ Film Manipulation
By C. Gary Moyer
Turning SX-70, Time Zero, or Artistic Time Zero film into a mini
impressionistic piece of art is an easy process with a few tools,
patience and practice. You will need a Polaroid camera that accepts
these types of film; I personally use an original SX-70 camera. A
quick Google search will show you how to use other Polaroid
cameras with some modification. What is cool about using the
SX-70 camera is the fact that it is an SLR model, which means that
what you see through the camera viewfinder is what shows up on
the film.
Note: when freezing photos,
place them in a plastic bag first.
I like to shoot subjects that I think will look good as paintings.
When removing the photos,
For me that’s usually vintage cars, but really anything goes. It’s a
allow them to warm to room
matter of taste. I usually shoot a few different angles and check to
temperature before taking them
see if I am happy with my final photos. If they look good, I move on
to the manipulation process.
out of the bag. Since Time Zero
film is no longer made, expired
When I use original Time Zero film, I can start the manipulation
film may act differently than
process almost immediately after taking the shot. If using the
described in this article. Trial
newer Artistic TZ film, I will wait about an hour before starting.
and error is necessary to see
Each film can be manipulated up to a few hours after exposing or
what your results will be like.
even longer if you freeze your photos.
As soon as a photo is ready for manipulation, I set up my work area
and heat the Polaroid with a small hair dryer. This helps make the
film emulsion more pliable. I use several types of tools to move
54
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine
Issue 12 Sneak Peek
Review:
blackbird fly
The toy camera world continues
its resurgence of new toys being
introduced on the market!
We’ll take an in-depth look at the
new Blackbird Fly, a 35mm TLR
created by Japan’s PowerShovel.
Will this be the next toy camera
in your collection? Check out our
review before parting with your
hard-earned money!
Photos by C.J. Stephen ~ http://www.theplasticlens.com
Issue 12 Gallery Theme:
Evidence:
Photographic Proof
All photographs are evidence of the world
around us and bear witness to a moment in
time. We are looking for your one best image
that show signs of photographic proof: proof
that something happened or someone was
there.
Gallery Editor: Aline Smithson
www.alinesmithson.com
Visit www.lightleaks.org/submissions.html
for submission details
56
Issue 11, Polaroid
Light Leaks Magazine