Polaroid Type 55: Sunday morning at Mt. Herman Baptist Church
Friend of the blog Jeff Singer let me know about New 55. Bob Crowley in Massachusetts is working on a brand new 4×5 film that resembles Polaroid Type 55. May even be an improvement based on his explanation of what they are working on. This is very exciting news. I wish these guys the best of luck and when they are ready would like to support or help them in any way I can.
Portrait of Michael Winokur by James Lesko, second sheet of film and we're off to a good start.
My friend James and I spent Saturday in my studio shooting some of the last Polaroid 8×10 film in the world. James brought over his beautiful Linhof 8×10 view camera – what a stunning example of mechanical engineering. We experimented with some black and white Polaroid 804 and a processor I had found on eBay. Neither of us had ever used this film before. All I can say is I wish I were shooting 8×10 Polaroid by the box back when it was still being made. It’s a slow methodical process but one with exactly the magic that people talk about when they romanticize photography.
James inserting the Polaroid film holder into his Lindhof Master Kardan.
The film was almost 10 years old. The processor in unknown condition. We could just have easily found out that neither worked. It could have been a hugely expensive pile of garbage. It was not garbage, it was amazing. All these years later it still made pictures that have that Polaroid goodness.
Shooting and processing 8×10 Polaroid requires - according the the instructions - 33 steps. From inserting the negative in the holder to placing the positive in the processor and timing the development to finally peeling the print from the negative. We shot 8 pictures in about 5 hours. We could have been faster but we didn’t want to waste any film. Oh, we did waste film. The first sheet got flared and then we mis-processed a sheet – that’s an expensive mistake about on par with shattering a bottle of fine wine.
The very first sheet we exposed, showing light leaks form improper handling.
Let us not give all the credit for this look to Polaroid. The Linhof camera fitted with a Heliar 360mm lens is special all by itself. One of the reasons this camera is exceptional for portraiture is that huge 8×10 image area. Technology companies have done wonders with small sensor digital cameras. But there is no changing the physics that govern light and optics. The bigger the imager (in this case 8×10) the longer the focal length of the lens which creates a “normal” field of view. The longer the focal length the greater the compression and shallower the depth of field.
Back to the Polaroid. The science side of photography is all about controlling variables. E.g. processing time and temperature effect film speed and contrast which in turn effect exposure. Many of these variables are well documented. In the case of 10 year-old film, the temperature vs. processing time side of the equation is a mystery. We started at the recommended 45 seconds and quickly doubled that to 90. With a decent supply of film that was all manufactured and stored under the same conditions we could determine the “right” processing time. Since that’s not possible we tried some variations around 90 seconds then accepted that as optimal.
This incredible day of making pictures purely for the sake of experimenting with the medium reminds me how much I loved working with Polaroid films, especially Type 55. It of course also reminds me how betrayed photographers feel by Polaroid for taking away integral film. There are fine-art photographers whose entire style was based on Polaroid’s films, if I’m annoyed by loosing this film I’m sure they are devastated.
The ghostly Polaroid negative just after being peeled away from the positive print.
There has never been more interest in photography and never have we seen more people building small companies devoted to photography enthusiasts. Somehow the MBA’s at Polaroid thought it would be better to hire Lady Gaga then to make even small amounts of the film that made them a worldwide brand. All we can hope for is the impossible. Impossible project that is. Maybe in years to come there will be more of this film. But there are very few 8×10 cameras, so it’s kind of hard to imagine. There are however tons of 4×5 cameras, I am told that 4×5 integral film like type 55 will never be made again. Polaroid destroyed the equipment. Fuji still makes a 4×5 instant film, it’s very good but it’s not the fine-art media that Polaroid’s films were.
Digital photograph of the ground glass
Michael Winokur photograph by James Lesko
James seen on the ground glass of his Master Kardan
Inspired by David Hockeny's Pearl Blossom Highway, this is one of a new series of montages I've been shooting here in the studio.
Since we moved into the new studio I’ve been exploring and really enjoying the new space. Right away I started a new personal project making portraits of freckled people. That series is now online here. Since I had cool people coming to the studio to sit for me I figured I could try something even more experimental then the freckles project. This series, which was inspired by David Hockeny’s Pearl Blossom Highway allows me to explore each subject through a series of detail images, this one of Ria Murphy is comprised of 69 individual photographs. I used an old Apple Box which I inherited when I moved into the studio as a unifying element in the series, it and the space itself are the only consistencies in these montages. Because of the nature of this project, you can’t tell if you have something good until you assemble all the parts, it has some of the magic and surprise that we all used to love with film.
Sad news in the photography world this week. Photographer, innovator and inventor Peter Gowland passed away after suffering a broken hip earlier in the month.
I have been talking on this site for a long time about my exploration with the Gowlandflex, the ingenious 4×5 reflex camera Gowland designed and built. As well as being an inventor, Peter was an innovator in Glamour photography. In 2006 Double Exposure’s Lynne Eodice wrote about Peter and Alice:
For many years, Peter Gowland’s name has been synonymous with glamour photography. The son of an actor, Peter was born in Hollywood and became involved with the movie industry at an early age. After he decided that he preferred doing still photography to acting, he went on to photograph some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, interiors of beautiful Los Angeles homes, and numerous swimsuit models. As a photographer, he has over 1000 magazine covers, photographs in prestigious publications (including Playboy centerfolds) and 25 books to his credit.
Peter with his magazine covers
I’m sorry I never had a chance to meet Peter in person. Though he is gone there are about 800 Gowland cameras out in the world, some with the top photographers in the world (Annie Liebovitz, Yousuif Karsh, Phillipe Halsman, Dennis Manarchy, John Huet, Arthur Grace, David Raccuglia, Arthur Elgort, and Mark Laita). I think Peter and Alice would be happy to know that we are still using his cameras to make great images. If you’re shooting with a Gowlandflex, please send me links to your work. I think it would be a great tribute to him to create a gallery of images showing Gowland’s effect on photography.
Fuji 160 VC Color Negative 4x5 shot with Gowlandflex
Here is a quick recap for those who just tuned in. I started this blog when I bought my Gowlandflex camera. That’s why it was called “BigAssCamera”. The goal was to use the Gowland camera to shoot portraits on Type 55. My timing couldn’t have been worse. Polaroid pulled the plug on Type 55 right about the time I took delivery on the new camera. I have 8 boxes of 55 I’m saving for something very special. Meanwhile I’ve been looking at alternatives to get where I had intended to go with that film stock. Working with my partner in crime, the talented retoucher Chrysta Giffen, we experimented on some outtakes from the ongoing Freckles Portrait Project. Here are the results of our exploration.
Digital capture combined with scans of Type 55 and other film stocks
Fuji 160VC plus some loving from CGRetouching
I’m on the lookout for a pair of 8″ Petzval portrait lenses. If you know of a source for these please send me a message. These lenses were made starting in 1840. They are characterized by extremely sharp center of focus with a quick falloff to a swirly bokeh. My plan is to try to adapt them to fit on the Gowlandflex, so if you have any experience with this also please let me know.
-Michael
Our local APA chapter just had a great event on editing. On the panel were Wired contributing photographer Joe Pugliese and Wired Photography Editor Anna Alexander talking about the editorial assignment process and Norman Maslov Agent Internationale and Sue Tallon talking about portfolio editing. In the interest of full disclosure I am on the board of APA-SF.
If you weren’t there you missed a great discussion about all things editing. I have one juicy tidbit to share – especially for my Gowlandflex, Type 55 followers. After all, that big, beautiful, beast of a camera was the reason I started this blog. Here goes: Wired, the magazine of the digerati, prefers film. Yep you heard it here. They not only are okay with photographers shooting film on assignment but prefer and encourage it. Joe Pugliese, Todd Hido, Dan Winters – all shoot film for Wired. So dust off your 4×5 holders and unplug yourself for a minute. Film isn’t dead.
Meanwhile you can read about and see photos from a Dan Winters shoot with Brad Pitt – on 4×5 – for Wired here on WTJ.
If you are lucky enough to be in San Francisco on September 23 2009, APA is hosting a lecture by Dan Winters about his new book Periodical Photographs, Aperture press 2009 at AAU. Details coming soon on the APAsf.com website.
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 4×5 and medium format instant pack films, but it is hard to imagine them expanding those offerings.
There is no doubt the Gowlandflex is a hard camera to work with. In my mind much easier then any other 4×5 camera but that’s not saying much on the easy – hard spectrum.
I hope he doesn’t mind but here are some photos of my friend David McLain trying to use my Gowlandflex. David’s an amazing photographer but he is used to working fast and light on assignments for National Geographic. Check him out at www.davidmclain.com or www.mergegroup.com. These photos were taken by my buddy Kevin Stokes www.stokes-web.com
I photographed George P. Schultz yesterday at Stanford University. The shoot was digital and involved a car full of gear, of course I had to bring the Gowlandflex along for some extra fun. This is a perfect example of the strength of this camera. We were shooting fast (I think we had 20 minutes of Mr. Schultz time) at multiple locations. There was no way I would have introduced a regular 4×5 camera into this shoot. With the Gowlandflex I was able to literally put the Canon DSLR down and pickup the Gowlandflex and make a couple exposures without really changing the pace of the shoot. My only gripe is with the evil Polaroid they really should be ashamed of their quality control. At $90 per pack I find myself throwing away 2-3 sheets of film that self destruct in the film holder.
-Michael
