My senior year of high school, my little first grade buddy gave me a Polaroid camera for Christmas. I was absolutely floored. I had planned on asking my parents for one, but was thrilled to receive such a nice gift from such a special little girl. Now, almost a year later, I still use it frequently and have my own photo album that I have maintained all year long.
To be completely honest, I love my Polaroid camera. But the obsession with them is getting to be perplexing and almost nauseating. After taking a Polaroid photo a few days ago, I had somewhat of a profound and odd realization. These photos are amazing because they exist in a physical sense and I know I will have them for years to come. In the case of digital photos, that is where the future becomes more bleak. There is such an interesting dichotomy between Polaroids usage in the 1990s versus today.
We are living in a day and age in which people are constantly taking photos purely for the sake of posting them on Instagram. Five years ago, this was not as much of an issue. Although Facebook was at its peak in terms of popularity back then, there was much more of an emphasis on a cultivated online profile rather than just through photos. I myself am constantly guilty of this idea of stressing and straining over a photo to post on Instagram. So much so, in fact, that I have gotten myself into a little routine almost every time I post a photo. I post a picture, look at it for a little while, and then I pretty promptly delete the app afterwards in order to avoid that anxious scrolling up the screen and the ridiculous nature that goes along with posting a photo. It is for this very reason that I wish we just scrapped Instagram altogether and just showed people our instant film shots.
Even if so many teenagers think of themselves as 'edgy' for taking Polaroids (I'll include myself in that), most people who own Polaroids still post them online. I myself still do this, but recently I have begun to think about why I do this rather than just letting my physical photo be something for my eyes only. The Polaroid 'instant' camera was first invented in 1948 by Edward H. Land. The instant nature of the camera is what attracted many consumers to the camera at first, and it gained popularity throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The tangibility and lasting nature of these photos is what made them so appealing.
For many of us today, these cameras certain do have an appeal because of the fact that the pictures come out so wonderfully and sharply. However, I personally think that today's emphasis on digital photography coupled with a new found desire to utilize these cameras is confusing to me. We want to hearken back to the good ol' days by snapping instant pictures, but yet we still have to show these tangible little photos to the whole world.
I am still going to keep using my camera and probably will still keep posting them. But I think maybe, just maybe, I'll consider why I am doing it and for what purpose the future of photography holds
