Some new photos from Fort Wayne

pixelated said:
I bought one of the plastic SX-70s just so I could do these. Then they "improved" the film.🙁
Click to expand...

I think the stuff I used for mine was the "Improved" SX-70. My photo professor in art school said that the SX-70 film made in the 70s stayed soft even longer then the stuff they sold in the 90s, when I was doing them. Then the film was discontinued altogether for a long time. It was reintroduced a few years ago, in yet another formulation that cannot be manipulated at all.
 



This little kitten was one of many born at grandpa's house over the years, but he was hit by a car and killed soon after this photograph was made. My grandparents lived out in the country and had a lot of semi-feral cats in their yard.

This is a Polaroid Image Transfer. It is a process done with the old peel-apart Polaroid films.

1994
 
Your Polaroid transfer reminds me of a couple of long days doing transfers of every item served at a tea room that eventually illustrated their menu. Part of the fun of that was calling up Calumet to order their oldest stock of 4x5 color Polaroid since it worked better when it got older, contrary to any other professional film I ever used. I wish that Polaroid type 52 was still made--I would be using my 4x5's a lot more if it was.
 
Cascadilla said:
Your Polaroid transfer reminds me of a couple of long days doing transfers of every item served at a tea room that eventually illustrated their menu. Part of the fun of that was calling up Calumet to order their oldest stock of 4x5 color Polaroid since it worked better when it got older, contrary to any other professional film I ever used. I wish that Polaroid type 52 was still made--I would be using my 4x5's a lot more if it was.
Click to expand...


That would have been a fun job!
 




This cast iron horse head hitching post stands next to my parents' driveway. I photographed it when I was in college.

This is a Polaroid SX-70 Manipulation. Polaroid SX-70 was the first "All in one" Polaroid film; unlike earlier Polaroid films, you did not have to peel apart the film to get the finished print. Unlike the later Polaroid 600 and Spectra films, the image of an SX-70 print remained soft for several minutes after the image had completely developed. This was discovered soon after the film was introduced back in the 1970s and artists began using blunt tools like wooden sticks and crochet needles to smear the image and push parts of it around under the clear plastic that covered the front surface.

I learned to do this in art school in the late 1990s. Unfortunately the Polaroid SX-70 film was discontinued only a couple years later, so I have only a handful of these images. The Polaroid SX-70 film sold today is a totally different material that was introduced a few years ago by the newly resurrected Polaroid company. Unfortunately, the new SX-70 film hardens before the image appears and cannot be manipulated like the old stuff. Images like this can never be made again.

Late 1990s
 




An old wheel and tire from a pickup truck leaned against some sawhorses in front of my father's garage when I was in college back in the late 1990s.

This is a Polaroid SX-70 Manipulation. Polaroid SX-70 was the first "All in one" Polaroid film; unlike earlier Polaroid films, you did not have to peel apart the film to get the finished print. Unlike the later Polaroid 600 and Spectra films, the image of an SX-70 print remained soft for several minutes after the image had completely developed. This was discovered soon after the film was introduced back in the 1970s and artists began using blunt tools like wooden sticks and crochet needles to smear the image and push parts of it around under the clear plastic that covered the front surface.

I learned to do this in art school in the late 1990s. Unfortunately the Polaroid SX-70 film was discontinued only a couple years later, so I have only a handful of these images. The Polaroid SX-70 film sold today is a totally different material that was introduced a few years ago by the newly resurrected Polaroid company. Unfortunately, the new SX-70 film hardens before the image appears and cannot be manipulated like the old stuff. Images like this can never be made again.

Late 1990s
 




This is the side of the 1978 Chevrolet pickup truck that my father used to drive. He bought it new in 1978; and like most cars and trucks made in the 70s, it began rust almost immediately. By the time I was in college in the late 90s, it has huge holes rusted through the doors and fenders! My mom finally made him get rid of it. The sad thing is that it ran great; it only had 75,000 miles on it when he sold it! Mechanically it was good, but the body was terrible.

This is a Polaroid Image Transfer.

Late 1990s
 




This was my grandparents John and Stella Westerfield's house in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is where my mother grew up. Today, my son owns it, and I live with him. I made this photograph when I was in art school.

This is a Polaroid SX-70 Manipulation. Polaroid SX-70 was the first "All in one" Polaroid film; unlike earlier Polaroid films, you did not have to peel apart the film to get the finished print. Unlike the later Polaroid 600 and Spectra films, the image of an SX-70 print remained soft for several minutes after the image had completely developed. This was discovered soon after the film was introduced back in the 1970s and artists began using blunt tools like wooden sticks and crochet needles to smear the image and push parts of it around under the clear plastic that covered the front surface.

I learned to do this in art school in the late 1990s. Unfortunately the Polaroid SX-70 film was discontinued only a couple years later, so I have only a handful of these images. The Polaroid SX-70 film sold today is a totally different material that was introduced a few years ago by the newly resurrected Polaroid company. Unfortunately, the new SX-70 film hardens before the image appears and cannot be manipulated like the old stuff. Images like this can never be made again.

1-28-95
 



Another Polaroid SX-70 Manipulation.

The Nikon F4s was my first professional-level camera. My dad bought it for me in 1994, during my last year of high school, so that I'd have pro-level equipment for art school. I used it for a lot of my commercial photography work for many years after I graduated from college. I made this photo of it in 1995.
 











The sky was very beautiful on the morning of March 18, 2022. I made these abstract photographs of the clouds soon after sunrise from my yard in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After a drab winter, it was one of the first good sunrises of 2022.
 








Some Polaroid snapshots of a house on Delaware Avenue, west of Crescent Avenue, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is one of many large old houses in that part of Fort Wayne that have been subdivided into apartments.

The house's owner, Andy Ankenbruck, told me that he painted the giant American flag on the side of the house when he was repainting the building in early 2019.

I also photographed the blue apartment house next to this one.

4-7-22
 




This is a Polaroid snapshot of the side door of an old apartment house on the corner of West Main Street and Fry Street, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is one of many large old houses in Fort Wayne that have been subdivided into apartments.

I have always thought that this entrance looked odd, with the sloping roof next to the door. Probably opens to the basement.

4-7-22
 









These are Polaroid snapshots of a Little Free Library West Main Street, just east of Fry Street, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It stands in front of the former playground of the now-closed Nebraska Elementary School. Someone has vandalized the Little Free Library, breaking off the door.

Little Free Libraries are small boxes containing books that anyone can take to read. People can also leave books in them for others to take. Most of them are built by individuals and businesses on their properties, but some are found at government buildings, such as fire stations and town halls.

4-7-22
 




Tug It Trucking is located on 13th Street (US-33/US-27), between Patterson Street and Elm Street, in the small town of Decatur, Indiana. The sign on the front of the company's garage says: "In God We Truck." I photographed it yesterday morning.

4-12-22
 
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