PolaBear’s Polaroids

A friend of mine took this Polaroid of me when I was twenty years old. He was trying to sell me his Mamiya film camera and he was showing off the fact that it shot Polaroids too. My eyes were closed in the picture but wide open as I watched him peel that picture apart and subsequently give it to me for my keeping. The shutter clicking, the noise of it being pulled through the rollers, the 30 seconds of downtime and then the peel. I bought the camera soon thereafter but that day I was really sold on the idea of the instant print. It quickly became a part of my photography as a way to test light, angles, lenses, and ideas in the scary world of film. Six years since that, I’ve shot a lot of Polaroids, keeping some and giving away just as many. The ones that are still around are in a box that has been in upper part of the closet for awhile. Even though they are old and dirty they still have a story to tell. Hopefully the ones that aren’t in the box are on a refrigerator somewhere telling their own story. Thanks to Chris McEniry for showing me that first polaroid.

Getting Polaroid happy with some legends at one of the Toe Jams

Adam Lawrence arriving with the trophies for one of the Toe Jams

Testing out some flashbulbs with remote fanatic Andrew Pastura

Warming up with a Polaroid just make sure the light math is right and my finger is working

Is this real life shot? Ben Horan about to cook some hot dogs for the trailer park crowd

My one and only photo of Murray

Sometimes guys just want to RIPNDIP together

Early mornings out at Aaron’s house filming for Rland

Anxious to the look of a new lens, polaroid with Robby Jacques

Light test with Reed Hansen

Out of focus Oolaroid of Balzer with his truck parked in the lake looking really crazy

The first shot with a new fisheye. Some of old roomate Drew Mcguckin’s art on the back porch

Uncomfortable Subscribe Page test shot