Mamiyaroid 9

Fall Polaroid Week 2020

It’s Polaroid week and I’m posting on my instagram! A sneak peek of a photo I won’t post on instagram until next week…

An iPhone photo taken early last month in Manhattan. One of my favorite recent photos, printed on the Polaroid lab using black and yellow duochrome film.

I’ve been reading photography essays in preparation for writing my own essay about deciding not to publish a photograph AND deciding to kill an interview with a photographer that was set to run in print. I’ll save the details for my essay, which I will hopefully publish in a fine journal, but both were decisions where I put ethics above any professional gains I might have made by publishing.

In John Berger’s essay, “Understanding a Photograph,”(from the book of the same title) he writes:

'“A photograph is effective when the chosen moment which it records contains a quantum of truth which is generally applicable, which is as revealing about what is absent from the photograph as about what is present in it. The nature of this quantum of truth, and the ways in which it can be discerned, vary greatly. It may be found in an expression, and action, a juxtaposition, a visual ambiguity, a configuration. Nor can this truth ever be independent of the spectator. For the man with a Polyfoto of his girl in his pocket, the quantum of truth in an “impersonal” photograph must still depend upon the general categories already in the spectator’s mind.”

This essay was published in 1968, and Berger mentions the horrific documentary photography coming out of the war in Vietnam but I have often wondered when reading older essays on photography if their lens is too narrow. It’s similar to how literature has been treated in terms of genre, and the distinctions between high culture and low culture. A lot has been written implying that Truth is only found in realism, but this is a dated concept. I believe when these older essays speak of photography they mean documentary work, but that leaves out many genres of photography. Maybe my unease with the statement as a whole is my understanding of how narrow the concept of “a quantum of truth which is generally applicable” is when you have certain gatekeepers who present specific realities as universal. That said, while it’s difficult to speak of capital T truth in 2020, you still have to seek out the borders of truth because if not, where are you?

I got a package from ikea and I was overwhelmed with the sheer masses of protective paper inside the box. Then I looked at the mesh-like texture and knew I had to make a costume out of it. Here is one of my self-portraits. (I would have loved to work with a model but I can’t seem to entice anyone to pose for me!)

Made with my mamiyaroid on black and yellow duochrome.

(This week on twitter I complained to my friend Elisa about instagram photographers adding long winded explanatory captions to their photos. Inscribing meaning to their images. And I have said I believe photos should speak for themselves and with that in mind, if I showed work in a gallery setting or published a book I would probably leave the images untitled, or if I did add titles, I wouldn’t write long captions explaining what’s going on in the image. But I’m always hungry to know how a photograph was made (not what it means, I can see that from the image) and that’s why I often explain my methods, my equipment, etc., the way I did above.)

Until next time…

Adalena

I love to receive comments and questions about photography and cameras!

My email: adalenakavanagh@gmail.com

Instagram: @mamiyaroid (instant/film) @5redpandas (personal)

Twitter: @adalenakavanagh

Also, if you’re thinking of buying Polaroid film for the first time, here is my referral code, which gets you 10% off, and I get some reward points.

Original photography prints: adalenakavanagh.bigcartel.com (I change out the shop every month of so. If you see something you like, let me know, I’m happy to make you a print.)

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-Adalena Kavanagh