{"id":93,"date":"2010-01-09T03:18:22","date_gmt":"2010-01-09T03:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/?p=93"},"modified":"2019-01-27T05:41:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T11:41:10","slug":"polaroids-early-april-fools-day-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/polaroids-early-april-fools-day-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"Polaroid’s Early April Fool’s Day Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Edited to add…<\/strong><\/em> The following is simply an opinion piece on my own part and behalf. I am not, nor have I ever been affiliated in any way with The Impossible Project, or with Polaroid in any of its forms or incarnations. I am a consumer of both company’s products, but that is the extent of my relationship with either them. …end edit<\/strong><\/em>)<\/p>\n

Funny, funny Polaroid Corporation.\u00a0 Lady Gaga as your new Creative Director.\u00a0 Let’s see, she’s a photographer?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 She’s a designer?\u00a0 Nein.\u00a0 She’s a visual artist?\u00a0 Huh uh.\u00a0 So what is she?\u00a0 She’s hot stuff, she makes the entertainment news.\u00a0 She’s today, she’s the now thing, she’s not Brittney Spears.\u00a0 In short, she’s a fad.<\/p>\n

Come on Polaroid.\u00a0 What the devil are you thinking?<\/p>\n

Some background would be in order here, but I probably know less about Lada Gaga than any other human being.\u00a0 My knowledge of her comes from her Wikipedia page, and the only experience I’ve had with her music is Eric Cartman performing M-m-m-my P-p-p-poker Face on South Park.\u00a0 That’s close enough for me.<\/p>\n

Musicians are artists, and judging from her record sales it sounds like she might very well have some talent.\u00a0 She’s definitely not my style of music so I’ve not bothered to seek her out.\u00a0 She’s the hot thing at the moment, but she’ll be a “where-are-they-now” subject soon enough.\u00a0 I’ve seen her on the news pages with her outlandish get-ups and wild appearances.\u00a0 When I see a musician looking like that, I immediately come to the conclusion that they didn’t get where they are by talent alone.\u00a0 No sir, they needed a gimmick, and boy what a gimmick she is.<\/p>\n

Which b-b-b-brings us to P-p-p-polaroid.\u00a0 It wasn’t that long ago Polaroid was singing a blues tune.\u00a0 The undisputed pioneer of instant photography built on the genius of Edwin Land was on hard times.\u00a0 They were an analog company in a digital world and they saw the images developing before their eyes as if by magic.<\/p>\n

Polaroid had participated in the digital camera market but with little success.\u00a0 As photography moved further from film to digital, times were harder for Polaroid and they finally filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001.\u00a0 Fast-forward several more years (the boring business details can be found easily enough) to more recent years where Polaroid has decided to get out of film and into digital.\u00a0 With this new business vision, all those pesky factories and that old messy mechanical equipment used to make the film were just not a part of the future.\u00a0 Much to the chagrin of Polaroid lovers everywhere, they began to shut down factories and scrap equipment.\u00a0 As of late 2009 Polaroid is out of the film business.\u00a0 Fortunately for those of us that love these cameras Fuji Film got into the business and still make the peel-apart films.\u00a0 Even more fortunate for us is a man named Florian Kaps who still had a vision and enough testicular fortitude to see it through.\u00a0 Partnering with the former head of film production for the factory in Enschede, Netherlands, he was able to put together a plan in conjunction with Ilford Photo to re-initiate integral film (the kind you could shake but it wouldn’t really develop faster) production in 2010.\u00a0 The new effort goes by the name The Impossible Project and they are the savior of Polaroid lovers world-wide.<\/p>\n

So now to Polaroid’s big announcement from the 2010 CES show… They will be teaming with Lady Gaga as Creative Director for a special line of products.\u00a0 In other words, they’re going to get right back in to the market they just got out of and think they can do it successfully because they’ve got a fad on board.\u00a0 Here’s a little of a CNBC report with an interview with Miss Gaga.\u00a0 Forgive me for my lack of hip trendiness, but I really don’t think she makes much sense here.\u00a0 I’m not even really sure she knows anything about analog vs. digital photography, but I guess that’s not much the point now, is it?<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

So where’s my beef?\u00a0 I’ve done a little Googlizing of the topic and found quite a few people that think it’s wonderful and that anything that helps Polaroid helps photography, and isn’t it wonderful, and blah, blah, blah.<\/p>\n

So really, what’s wrong here?\u00a0 Alright here’s my analysis.\u00a0 You can pick me apart in the comments if you like.<\/p>\n

Polaroid bailed and left a lot of photographers out in the cold with no hopes of film.\u00a0 Some professionals still use the instant stuff for different purposes ranging from proofing to fine art.\u00a0 Plenty of hacks like myself just love the medium and marvel at the possibilities that exist all without the need of Photoshop.<\/p>\n

Fuji has been taking care of us.\u00a0 The new cameras that Gaga with her years of engineering, marketing, and manufacturing experience will help develop aren’t going to use the peel-apart films, and besides, Fuji is big enough to take care of itself.\u00a0 Thank you Fuji, and please keep cranking out the good stuff.\u00a0 If you ever see Polaroid coming up the walk with something that looks like a cross between a woman and a peacock, lock the doors.<\/p>\n

Over to The Impossible Project.\u00a0 This was a ballsy move by a few very dedicated visionaries, and now Polaroid sees an opportunity to jump in and capitalize.\u00a0 They’ve worked with The Impossible Project to help the film come back to the light of day, and I’m sure they’re appreciated for that, but now they’ve gone and done something a little too bold.<\/p>\n

The Polaroid camera is getting ready to be re-released as a kitschy fad item.\u00a0 Maybe Polaroid doesn’t see it as that, but with Gaga as their new highly made-up face, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.\u00a0 Since The Impossible Project is going to be making the films, doesn’t that benefit them?\u00a0 It definitely will short-term, but I’m afraid the long-term effects will be problematic.<\/p>\n

Problem #1: Polaroid isn’t going to be making the film.\u00a0 They will be making the cameras.\u00a0 Polaroid doesn’t seem to be going out of their way to make sure people understand that.\u00a0 The web is all abuzz with “Polaroid is back!!!”\u00a0 The Impossible Project is the key to this whole thing, and when partners don’t take care of each other, bad things ultimately result.<\/p>\n

Problem #2: Every teeny-bopper Gaga wanabee is going to want one of these cameras.\u00a0 The cameras are no good without the film.\u00a0 Lots of cameras means lots of film.\u00a0 Lots of film means big production increases, more equipment, more personnel, more everything.\u00a0 If you’ve ever been around manufacturing you know what I’m talking about.\u00a0 It’s hard.\u00a0 Really hard.\u00a0 It’s going to be even harder when all these Lil’ Gagas get bored of the fad, or figure out that at about $1.00 – $1.50 per shutter push, this instant stuff is kind of pricey.\u00a0 And just wait until their friends want the photos on MySpace.\u00a0 There’s no USB jack on a Polaroid photo.<\/p>\n

Sudden increases in production followed by sudden decreases in demand can be the death or at least tremendous hardship for a manufacturing company.\u00a0 I’ve seen it.\u00a0 It’s not pretty.<\/p>\n

I think Polaroid is really stepping in it and I sincerely hope it doesn’t cause The Impossible Project irreparable damage.\u00a0 I wish them the best, regardless what fate befalls Polaroid in this deal.\u00a0 Two things I know: 1) I will continue buying Impossible Project films, and 2) I will still not own any music from Polaroid Corporation Creative Director Gaga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Edited to add… The following is simply an opinion piece on my own part and behalf. I am not, nor have I ever been affiliated in any way with The Impossible Project, or with Polaroid in any of its forms or incarnations. I am a consumer of both company’s products, but that is the extent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,5,34,29,30],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","tag-cameras","tag-film","tag-photography","tag-polaroid","tag-the-impossible-project"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/existentialmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}