It's Our 100th Theme!
Posted by Adam Hurly on 23 May 2008.
For JPG's 100th theme, we're teaming up with File Magazine and Flak Photo, and we are asking you to submit your very best Polaroid portraits, to be published in Issue 17. Give us your best shot of a person—you, Grandma Edith, Pastor Ralph—taken with a Polaroid camera. If you've got more than one great shot, put your images together and write a story.
The Polaroid camera is one of a few monumental products from my younger years that seems to have disappeared. However, this lost art—perhaps never lost to some of you—is an easy revival. I'm betting you still have that camera and some unused photos, so dust 'em off and get busy. This is perhaps the most fun you can have taking pictures, and it's so authentic. The digital age makes it convenient to delete unwanted pictures, but there's no "Oops, I blinked" with Polaroids. One and done, my friends.
If you're looking for any inspiration, you may find it from Jamie Livingston, who took a Polaroid every day for the last 18 and a half years of his life. Or maybe you'll find inspiration from your fellow JPG members. Here's some of our favorite submissions so far:
Polaroid Self Portrait by Peter Coupe
Green Cristina by Enrique Freaza Viera
Dad and Mom by Kevin Leger
What are you waiting for? Find that vintage piece of equipment you've been storing for the past few years and see what develops. I'm guessing it will be wonderful, authentic, and if you're lucky, publishable.
Be sure to submit it by June 7!
