foto-mondo: polaroid road trip

Monday, June 25, 2007

polaroid road trip

"christ apostolic rib shack" delhi, louisiana [c]2007 doug duffey

to go to my gig saturday, in tallulah, i decided to drive highway 80 [instead of taking the interstate] to shoot whatever i found. i found a wealth of subject matter; more than i'd expected.

there was nobody out, the towns were almost deserted; it was weird... i actually stood in the middle of the railroad track in downtown rayville and saw almost nobody... but it was also hot as hell, so that was a factor.

i carried my polaroid land 210, polaroid spirit, canon ae-1, nikon slr, kiev 60, and 3 vivitar plastic cameras. i must've gotten in and out of the car 50 times, and wagged about 4 cameras for every shot... however, i focused on the 210 and got some incredible stuff. this may be my new camera of choice. the polaroid 664 film with the old land camera made some great fotos... most of them look OLD, which is very cool.

i haven't scanned the fotos yet, they each need to be scanned in color [even if they are B&W] to get all the tones.... above is a funny one: the "christ apostolic rib shack" in delhi, louisiana. i plan to do a gallery of them, instead of just a few here.

[c]2007 doug duffey

about this blog

i began making photos in my teens. i wasn't really making much more than snapshots [except for a few psychedelic polaroids in the late 60s] until the 90s, when i bought a used Canon AE1 camera from a guy on Bourbon Street [probably 'hot']. that's when i began getting serious about photography. i taught myself everything by doing: how to use the camera; how to develop film; how to make the prints [b&w only]. when i bought 2nd hand darkroom equipment and began printing, it really became a passion.

i collect and use cameras: everything from crap 50-cent fixed focus plastic 35mm ones i find at junk stores to good quality Leica, Rollei, Bronica, Yashica, Nikon-i particularly like old manual cameras that don't use batteries etc. [Voigtlander, Zeiss, etc] i've been collecting rangefinders like crazy-it's gotten ridiculous: i have more cameras than i can use... but keep collecting. i sometimes turn broken cameras into pinhole film cameras.

i really like the effects i get with the crap plastic cameras [i like the element of surprise] using 'color process' b&w film- i usually load several w/different ASA film and take them when i go shooting. they're light, easy to carry, never need batteries, and i don't have to worry about lighting, or f/stops etc. i've also bought a lot of medium format plastic cameras as well [diana, agfa isola, etc] and old 127 ,120, & 620 film-cameras [both good quality and bad] - the fixed focus plastic lens make for dream-like, soft focus shots. i love old photographs and these were the type cameras that made the majority of those!

i've been trying to scan/archive most of my negatives/fotos for years now- but considering i have been making fotos from my teen years until now that is a major on-going work. i have about 4 external hard drives w/ thousands of fotos on them... and thousands of 'actual' physical negatives... and fotos- things i've shot all over the world; however, my favorite subject matter remains the beautiful but tragically disappearing old south, which i hope to capture as much of as possible.

i almost never have prints made. i usually print photographs myself, when i am going to do a series and or a show. i also develop all true b&w film/negatives myself, after having some negatives ruined by so-called professionals, who either used old chemicals or didn't time things right. as said, i collect old cameras and have many different film formats; many of the negatives would have to be sent off; so, doing it myself is faster and much cheaper. i'm not really into digital, because i like film... and i like working in the darkroom. digital cameras take the photos when THEY decide to; a manual camera makes the foto when YOU press the button. i've also seen digital fotos just 'disappear'- due to computer crashes- or media cards- so i prefer film. i have my grandmother's and mother's negatives from waaaaaaaaaaaaay back... which i can still print from... who knows that whatever digital medium we're using these days will even be functional in 5 years? give me film any time!

for a long time i have been using Ilford xp-2 - and Kodak BW400 [both are color processed b&w you can have processed anywhere] and scan the negatives into my computer. but , now to make things even easier, i just have whoever develops the negatives scan them to cd. of course i only print b&w- so for true B&W i print myself. if i photoshop anything it has to be a digital print; especially anything in color.

i've had exhibits in louisiana and europe, but due to the fact that music is my top priority business, i haven't been doing any printing lately. i just keep shooting more and more film and keep acquiring more and more negatives, polaroids, and cds of the work... [and collecting more cameras] at least i can post some of the digitized shots/scans here!

check out the IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT to save and continue Polaroid film