Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Fall 2010: Polagrams

One other kind of experimenting I did while at Haystack was working with Polaroids to make photograms (Polagrams). I had only seen a few of these online before and I found instructions on how to make them. It actually ended up being a fairly easy process. Most of my time making these was spent gathering up objects from the forest, and the two minutes it took for each Polaroid to develop before I peel it off. The end results are a little similar to some of my earlier photogram/unique c-print work, but with some interesting differences.

I really enjoyed the idea of having a portable method for making photogram images, and that they would translate a little differently by being more saturated and a lot smaller in size. there is something quite elegant about these images that most common Polaroids do not possess. I for one tend to be a little annoyed with how trendy Polaroid has become these days, but it was nice to do something a little different using them.

Each Image below is a set of three Polagrams that I thought worked best together as a set.

20x24 Polaroid

I was very fortunate enough to have a session with the Polaroid 20x24 camera that Mass. Art owns. This was a rare opportunity that many people do not get the chance to have. I purchased 5 sheets at $75 a pop. Four of them came out and I got to say, I am very very happy with them. My goal was to make images that were visually pleasing and that partially mirrored some of the photogram work that I do. The quality of the images below do not do justice to the creamy and warm quality that these polaroids possess, not to mention the fact that they lost a good amount of the soft contrast they have. I hope at one point to have them displayed somewhere for people to see in person. More to come on that down the road hopefully. I also attached my blueprint of the ideas for the shots, to see a little of the thought process and how that can change when faced with different obstacles. I also attached a photo of when I was prepping for the fruit and of the actual session itself. Enjoy.