the death of the ultra-cool polaroid.

unless you haven't heard... Polaroid Co has decided to officially discontinue their products within this year. invented by the ingenious Edward Herbert Land in 1947 the polaroid has been around for well over 50 years and has left a stamp on the world in the form of billions of polarized film. i can't help but wonder how our lives will change without polaroids... what will the fashion world do? how will jason mraz take photos of himself on stage and throw them out at his audience? and what will amusing sites such as postcardpolaroid.com do with themselves now?

in the 1990's Polaroid sorta had a revival and that's probably when my love-affair with instant film began. my first Polaroid was actually the Polaroid JoyCam and then the iZone and only then the regular sized Polaroid camera... more than anything it's probably cause i love anything pocket-sized and the iZone polaroids were tiny compared to the regular sized polaroid. (oh god and do you remember the SpiceCam?? i remember it was the height of cool to have one. random thought sorry.)

but with digital cameras (and facebook profile pictures) taking over our lives... i guess polaroids have kinda taken a backseat. nowadays our camera-savvy friends take the photo and instantly we gather around him/her trying desperately to catch a glimpse of the outcome. is my double chin showing? or has that huge spot that i'm so discreetly trying to hide with my v. interesting hand posture reared its ugly head? and after much protesting ('i look horrific in that photo'/'you gotta delete it'/'if you post that up on facebook i'll delete you as my friend') the photo is deleted - without ever actually being a real photo. with polaroids - we embrace the imperfections and bad hair days... on the most part cause instant film is rather pricey but none the less you gotta admit that there's never a bad photo when it comes to a polaroid.

i'm personally sad to see polaroids slowly but surely seeping away. there's certainly something about them - i dunno it might be their old-school cool or quirkiness but there's just something unique about taking a polaroid and owning a polaroid. something that i'll miss in the future and that's why i intend on getting my hands on as much instant film as i can or at least as much as my bank account will allow.

on the otherhand i think we might also have a found a window to something with vintage potential? my advice is to hold onto all those instant snapshots (even if they are of you in your pajamas) cause they might be worth more than you think one of these days.

in the mean time... visit http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/save-polaroid-film.html and sign the petition to save polaroid film!