Polaroids are for People

Steve focuses on the task at hand
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

I may have written about this before, but it begs to be said again: there's nothing finer than a Polaroid for portraits. I'll bring my Polaroid cameras out and fully intend to shoot photos of still life or landscapes, and somehow the camera always gets turned to people. Folks don't seem to mind getting their picture taken with these cameras, in fact many will stop me and ask me to take their photo on the street, no joke. Many times I've been more than happy to shoot twice and give them a copy.

Recently, a friend of mine, Craig Nelson, has done quite a bit of portrait photography with his Mamiya RB67 and a Polaroid film back. His stuff is pretty distinctive - low shutter speeds, gorgeous natural light, and a quality to the portrait that says something about the relationship between photographer and subject. His stuff is great, and it shows a big reason why losing this film is such a shame. To be completely honest, he's using the Fuji version of the instant film, which is great because it will be in production for at least a little while yet.

Another guy to look at is Lou Bedlam, whose Polaroid integral-film portraits are stunners. Again there's the tight framing and personal connection with the subject, something that the medium can really shine at. I think he's progressing to TLR-based medium format right now as Polaroid phases out 600 film.