Blog

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Welcome back to 8 Exposures, our popular instant film Q&A series! This week we’re very happy to present you with Los Angeles video editor and photographer Leandro Fornasir…

And of course, your answers to these questions:

1) What kind of Polaroid camera(s) do you use?

Primarily an SLR 680 with a wonky autofocus, a couple of SX-70 Sonar OneSteps and a Spectra AF. I also use a Auto 100 and 450 from time to time.

2) Why do you like instant photography?

I’ve always loved photography of all flavors, film and instant (digital too). I’m not a heavy shooter in general, so getting my photo right, for me, in a few shots or less tends to happen regardless of camera type analog or digital. I like it right away or I don’t and move on. For me, the instant medium matches how I tend to photograph, but I don’t have to wait till the end of the roll and I don’t need to spend much time in photoshop. Plus, in our very digital world, its nice to have a tactile, unique expression of a particular moment in your hands. It’s a bridge, in a way, between the digital immediacy and analog result. I like the unpredictability of certain films/cameras and letting go of some of the control and how all that can contribute to the final image. Also, there is a challenge to working with instant film that I enjoy, both in terms of cameras and film types. Trying to figure out the strength and weakness between cameras and instant variables like age, sun light and temperature. The image quality and color palettes are very much its own as well. I like that, at times, they can look painterly or modern and yet something vintage right out of an old print ad or invoking distant memories. I find the entire analog/chemistry/development process fascinating and exciting. Since its been a good 12+ years since the last time I was in a wet darkroom and watching a print develop, the instant process always brings back that thrill of seeing an image slowly appear.

Supporting Around the World in 9 Days with Tiny Collective, we continue our weekly video series featuring Tiny Atlanta’s Wes Quarles (@wesq on Instagram).

Celebrating the launch of IMPOSSIBLE’s Instant Lab, Around The World in 9 Days is a touring Instant Lab mobile photography exhibition opening in 9 cities on 9 consecutive days with 10 Tiny Collective members showing a total of 900 unique images all printed directly from iPhones using the IMPOSSIBLE Instant Lab. The tour takes place in New York City, Paris, Los Angeles, Istanbul, Toronto, San Francisco, Dubrovnik, Atlanta and Portland from June 20-28, 2013.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Welcome back to Impossible’s Analog Travelog! In this series, we showcase fantastic Impossible photos taken on voyages the world over. This entry comes to us from Deborah Slater who recently took a trip to Perth in Australia, and brought along some Impossible film…

Every year in February, whilst England is well and truly settled into its cold and dark winter, I fly off to Perth in Australia, to visit family and friends and recharge the batteries with a well-needed burst of Australian summer sunshine. I spent my school days growing up in Perth and have always equated February with long hot summer holidays – even after 20 years of living in England, I find it hard to spend this part of the year in “winter”.

I decided to take my SX-70 with me on this trip, for the first time, and stocked up with numerous packs of the Impossible Project’s Color Protection film before I left. I was unsure as to what kind of results I would get – I knew that the harsh Australian heat and sunshine (temperatures were reaching 35 degrees centigrade plus) could have had an adverse effect on my images. I’d never used my camera in these kind of temperatures before, but I was keen to give it a go. Perth is a perfectly laid back and relaxed kind of city and pretty much everything during their summer revolves around the beach and outdoor life.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Welcome back to Viewfinder, our ongoing series in which we chronicle interesting projects people are working on that incorporate IMPOSSIBLE film. This entry focuses on a project from our friend Alison Turner called “Reflected Identities”…

When I look in the mirror, what I see reflecting back at me is usually not how I feel inside. Under the superficial layer of skin, hair and eye color, I am much more complex than my reflection reveals. My internal struggles and search for self-identity has given me plenty of bricks to build the wall high, while holding down an internal mix of intense feelings of anger, loss, jealousy, vulnerability, love, sadness and confusion.

They say that you are a direct reflection of your friends and the people you choose to surround yourself with. If this holds true, all of my friends in this series are a collective self portrait of who I am. “Reflected Identities” has allowed me to see and understand these feelings by looking closer at the faces and bodies of the people who are closest to me who are also learning to accept who they are right now.

Supporting Around the World in 9 Days with Tiny Collective, we continue our weekly video series featuring Tiny Dubrovnik’s Katarina Gavrilica (@kejtgejv on Instagram).

Celebrating the launch of IMPOSSIBLE’s Instant Lab, Around The World in 9 Days is a touring Instant Lab mobile photography exhibition opening in 9 cities on 9 consecutive days with 10 Tiny Collective members showing a total of 900 unique images all printed directly from iPhones using the IMPOSSIBLE Instant Lab. The tour takes place in New York City, Paris, Los Angeles, Istanbul, Toronto, San Francisco, Dubrovnik, Atlanta and Portland from June 20-28, 2013.