Personal: 23, A year with Polaroid
The start of the 2023 I quickly wanted to start a project, something that was creative and new, something outside my normal photography box, something that would mark the year for me so that whenever I looked back I could say “that was the year I…” However that notation proved harder to attain than I realized. I played around with some ideas but none of them ever stuck. But like every good story that’s when the idea came. A couple weeks before I had watched a photographer make a YouTube video rounding up his year and the project that he had worked on. I don’t quite remember the title of the video but it was something to the effect of “Corners of Buildings 2022,” and it was exactly as it sounds. It was a video of 365 photos of roof top corners of all different buildings. I laughed as I watched the video at the time and moved on not thinking I would ever think of what I had just watched ever again. But then I did. The concept of taking 365 photos, that’s one photo every day, seemed daunting to me-and I liked it. That would be the idea. One photo…every day…for a whole year. Now with the running idea these questions came into my mind. How am I going to do it? What camera am I going to use? I could’ve used my trusty mirrorless camera I had been using for a while now but that would’ve been way too easy and too boring. I mean come on now, new year means I gotta step out of the comfort zone a little. At the time I was working as a product photographer for a company where the product is old and unique historical items. That next day, while I was working, I also started brainstorming ideas for the new project. When low and behold, I picked up an old polaroid of an Indigenous woman weaving a rug. Something about it was special. It was simple and it was beautiful. The polaroid accompanied the actual rug she had been weaving in the image. In that moment, that’s when I knew. Polaroid would be my camera for the next near and I would use it to capture moments special to me. No rules, no limitations, just life as it is. With out too much more of an extended introduction, here are some the my favorite polaroid’s through out last year.
THE First polaroid
I watched a very old gentleman slowly crash into my fence then completely forget what he had done.
He died not long after.
For these two images I wanted to pose people for some portraits and I’m not unhappy with how they turned out.
I turned 22. Happy Birthday to me.
This is my sister Hannah. Say hi Hannah, you’re famous now.
As time progressed and I grew deeper into the project new ideas kept popping up for ways I could take it.
One of the ideas was taking all the completed work and putting it into a coffee table book with a series of poems and short stories. That didn’t happen, but who's to say it never won’t.
This image was a running cover and title for the book.
I started dating easily the most beautiful woman in the world this year. I don’t care, I will take every opportunity to gloat.
My friend holding the firework, in the image above, is a real one for grabbing onto an already lit firework on the fourth of July just for the photo. Chad move Bethany, chad move…
I accidentally broke a pot but it looked cool so still not worth it.
My other, ever so beautiful, sister got married.
Before this ends I wanted to show the polaroid that started this whole project. Maybe it’s because I’ve yet to take off the rose tinted glasses, and to be quite honest with you I hope that’s something I never do, but when I look at this photograph I still see the same thing that captivated me from the beginning.
This was a fun and creatively fulfilling project, and although I have no idea what the next project will be, I know there’s another good one around the corner.
There’s no way I could’ve put all the Polaroids from this last year into this blog, no matter how much I wanted to. Maybe one day there will be a medium of which to do that, but not today.
Thank you for taking the time to look through this curated gallery and I hope you enjoyed the story.
THE END
