Polaroids

Polaroid cameras always seem like some kind of magic. One futuristic click, some whirring, and you get a fully mounted photograph. They must have seemed even more like magic in the 1960s, which is when the camera that took these was made, although I can't seem to find a huge amount out about the dates of the photographs themselves. All I know is that they were taken with a 1967 Polaroid land camera.

The Paris Review captions the top left-hand photograph 'Coney Island ritual' – what is so fascinating about it is that it could easily be a photograph of a ritual taken last week, or five decades ago. The photographer, Misty Woodford, has a website which reveals exactly nothing about them.

all photographs reproduced via Misty Woodford, taken from here

The pinks and blues and the general haze of these polaroids really caught my attention. I like the way that the camera is at once able to capture the essence of the carnival but also the ethereal atmosphere of a crunchy snowy morning. While I like using things like Instagram, there is certain saturation point that I am definitely reaching with fake-polaroid applications, and seeing the quality of the real thing is part of the reason why.

Whatever decade these were taken in, they must have been taken so carefully, with every click clicked with respect to the prohibitive expense of a polaroid film. The feel of the photographs is a combination of this and the real limitations of the development rather than on purpose to achieve a particular 'vintage' style. Either way, either decade, either atmosphere – I like them. Oh, and those shoes too.