The Film

Polaroid 250 Land Camera

There are two vegetable drawers in our refrigerator, and one of them is crammed with nothing but film. I brought it with me when I moved to Melbourne almost 4 years ago. I've been paring it down slowly. Film is expensive here, and a large portion of my stash is Polaroid, which isn't made anymore, so I tell myself these pictures need to count. But the expiration dates have now long since passed, and every day I don't use it the film chemistry weakens a little bit more. At this point, each picture is a gamble.

But that's okay, because the results can be interesting. Two days ago I pulled out one of my beloved Polaroid cameras-- a heavy, black-and-silver 250 Land model from the late 60s that, when collapsed, is shaped like a Claymore mine.  I noticed it still had half a cartridge of colour 669 pack film in it, probably loaded sometime back in 2006, or perhaps even earlier. I took it with me to trugo practice that afternoon and snapped a picture of Champ nosing around in the garden area behind the clubhouse.

When I pulled on the tab, I heard the familiar dull whistle of the film moving between the metal rollers; it's akin to the sound of a silk necktie slipping briskly through your fingers. A fraction of a second before coming free of the camera body, I could detect the faint pop of the developer pod bursting and, immediately after, a whiff of the photochemistry that would begin to reveal an image; it's a cool, drowsy scent of something undefinably appealing I wish I could eat. I have the same fondness for the smell of gasoline.

© Peter Sackett

60 seconds later, I got this-- or at least something like it. I scanned the print and gave it a crude tweak in iPhoto to see what colours I could rescue, but clearly, red and magenta called it quits a long time ago. The print itself was even more blue than this. But hey, not bad considering that Polaroid would have classified the film as garbage.

I'm told the cross is a joke and that no one is actually buried there. The tripods are for tomatoes, which will be planted in the next week or so.

I'm not going to be nearly as stingy with this film as I have been. True, they're not making this exact stuff anymore, but Fuji now manufactures instant pack film that fits these cameras, so there's really no excuse for keeping it in the fridge. Time to use it.