Someday, My Prints Will Come

As a child of the sixties, I grew up in the Kodak heyday, when any photographs taken on holiday were always a delayed experience, as the film would have to be taken to the chemist when you got home and then developed and printed - assuming you remember to send the films in! Nowadays, photographs are all a very much disposable and fleeting experience, especially given the deluge of social media. 

I love old photographic prints, as they are like a little window into a lost time, or a postcard from the past. Being able to physically hold a moment in your hand and examine it, is a much more rewarding experience than viewing on a screen. Just this week, my wife bought me a Fujifilm Instax camera, a modern version of the classic Polaroid Instamatic, which takes and processes and prints the photo in seconds.

Its a big chunky plastic camera, ideal for me as ive got big hands, which takes a cassette of 10 frames. Given that I only have ten shots, its much more limiting than a phone camera and forces me to consider what I want on the print a lot more carefully. Naturally, the first go had to be a willing subject, so the dogs photobombed immediately! The prints are about 3" tall and great quality. Unlike Polaroids, they develop quickly and don't have to be pulled apart from the developing sheet.

My other love lately are glass magic lantern frames, usually black and white, printed on a glass positive base. ive picked up a few from ebay and car boots here and there and the quality and detail is amazing. They can be projected large scale on a wall, or printed with an enlarger.

Most phone apps have the ability to add a border or an edge to a photo to simulate the 'film effect' with either a distressed border, or just a plain white edge. Digital photos are wonderful, but there is just something about a print that you can hold and admire.