Thursday, August 17, 2006

Expired Polaroid Type 88

Picked up three packs of Type 88 that expired in September of 1996 on eBay recently.


I'm trying to make it last, since expired Polaroid is tougher to find...at least the kinds I can use. Took a couple shots around Phoenix.



The tones are muted and lean towards orange. The El Camino was actually bright yellow on the sides, so you can see how much darker the film is. I also decided to try a few emulsion transfers. Tried and failed. This first was with wet watercolor paper. This is the print and the transfer. It was developed for 15 seconds to leave the dye on the goop side.



As you can see, I mostly just got globs of blobs. Almost pretty, but just ugly enough to be...ugly. Looks kind of like someone crapped on my artwork. The second set shot was done with dry water color. Again, the print and the transfer.



Even less successful! Looks like denim. I actually like the prints, with the ultra faded tones and the goop stuck to them. These are my first two attempts, so I assume I will get better at some point. This film may just be too old...or it's too warm (around 84 degrees F in here)...who knows. I'll keep trying, though! I've read that the newer emulsions don't transfer, but then I've read that people still use the newer stuff. I think I'll save this expired film for actual prints. I want to go around some of the Hispanic (or Latino, whatever you prefer) areas of town, with the brightly painted store fronts...be fun to shoot some in Nogales, too, but that's a longer drive. Whatever, I want to use the film to maximum effect!

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:24 AM

    Yes, the prints are great! I like the second one more, it has very early morning fog -feel to it. The first one reminds me of home - it made me slightly home sick.
    Sniff :(

    So ebay, of course, where you get your expired films from! You have interesting experiments going on here. Fun!

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  2. love the shots...
    what polaroid
    camera
    are you using?

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's a Polaroid Square Shooter 2 body and a Super Shooter lens plate.

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  4. Anonymous12:04 PM

    hello.

    i just got a super swinger.
    just wonderingif you can tell me what film i can use with the camera, i got a couple packs of 88 off ebay, would this work?

    ReplyDelete
  5. type 87 only!

    http://moominsean.blogspot.com/2008/12/polaroid-pack-film-final-lesson.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5:46 AM

    Hi.
    I bought a super colour swinger II. The type of the film i should buy is the 88 or the 87 ?
    Would they work even though they´re expired?

    ReplyDelete
  7. pretty sure it only takes type 88. whether it works or not depends on how old and how it was stored. anything from 96 to 2008 should be okay, but it's still a crap shoot sometimes.

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  8. it will also take type 89 and color viva.

    ReplyDelete