The crackled texture of an old photo, be it a Hollywood shot of Audrey Hepburn or one of your much-beloved dog, is something sentimental that pulls at our heart strings. Being a product of the ’90s, I came away from that decade knowing two things:
- The Spice Girls are, and always will be, the definition of “girl power”.
- Camera roll films are a pain to get developed.
Remember when you would take a picture and be unaware of how good or bad you looked? You would have to wait for the roll to be developed before you knew the results, usually a process pending weeks, if your mother, like mine, always forgot the roll at home. Finally, you would go and collect a neat submarine-yellow envelope. After opening it delicately, you would find a stack of freshly-printed photos just as valuable as fresh cookies hot from the oven. Today, this multistep process can be slimmed down to three actions: one – take out your iPhone or comparable device; two – ask someone to take a picture or take a much beloved “selfie”; three – look at your picture instantly. This photo process is incomparable with that of the ’90s. I, myself have an iPhoto program that is exploding with albums. From time to time, I browse through them, make a mental note to print some and fail to follow through. Is living the paperless trail of the 21st century really a bonus?
Thanks to jpgs and other digital formats, most of our memories are on devices. This leaves us exposed to the danger that our laptops will break and gone will be the memories. It is far riskier than dropping our photo roll off at the local photo developer. Though the days of photo films were long and painful, the modern age of not having any hard copies of one’s “moments” is not optimal either. With the digital revolution, we have become greedy and impatient to want things now. If I want movies now, then I sign on Netflix. If I want music now, then I go to YouTube. Personally, I want crackled textured hard copies of my moments. Answer: the Polaroid camera.
The Polaroid camera has grown up with us. Aged like a fine wine, Polaroid cameras are back; pop one into your pocket for 2014 (they’re smaller now). Indeed, Polaroids can cater to the needs of the 21st century as instantly as it did in the late ’90s. Allow me to explain: not only do Polaroids today have digital screens (so you can see a picture before you print it), but they also allow you to upload images to Facebook. Furthermore, some Polaroids have customized applications which allow you to tweak your photos before printing, rather than going to a photo developer or waiting for your prints to arrive from Picasso. Polaroid now means “portable photo booth”. Could this be the solution to our photo-less walls? Gone could be the days of “to print” or “not to print”.
Images Retrieved From: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcby4nE5Ql1rc2phzo1_500.jpg and http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyrktw2hMI1roe75no1_500.jpg.