Sale: Expired Impossible film
The Open Eye Gallery shop is currently having a 10% discount sale on expired ‘Impossible’ Polaroid film, and as far as expired produce goes, this is an excellent deal.
For many, the act of instant photography has become one of tactility, the framed memory. The quality of the image has become a huge part of instant photography; even having a digital filter on phones replicating it’s faded and aged appearance. When film expires, or simply ages, it becomes less predictable and more prone to over exposure, distortions in the image, and other incredible effects that would be difficult to achieve otherwise. So instead of throwing out expired stock, we feel the opportunity for creative expression and experimentation should be wildly promoted.
The unpredictable and inconsistent nature of film can often deliver a wide variation of satisfying visual results. Quite often, photographers and artists alike are open to experimenting and testing the limitations of the medium, striving more and more to deliver imagery expressing the films fullest potential. People are known to rip, bleach, dissect, burn, drown, and irradiate their Polaroids (and more so) to varying levels of expertise and success.
A brief history of Polaroid photography: in 1947 Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid, demonstrated to the public for the first time something that revolutionized photography and would later define a generation within its now iconic white borders. Now a household name and an instantly recognizable brand to photographers and non-photographers alike, Polaroid is arguably, aside from digital, the most accessible form of photography.
In 2008, however, Polaroid stopped producing instant film, much to the horror of their devout, if not somewhat niche fan base, as their cameras and photographic process would suddenly have a very limited lifespan. The factories producing the film stocks shut down one by one- the machines were dismantled and a truly iconic format was to be left in ruin. In the very last days of the very last factory a group of people called ‘Impossible Project’ stepped in and bought the factory in its entirety to then set about re-creating instant film from scratch.
Impossible is now the only company in the world that produces film for Polaroid cameras and realizes Polaroid’s philosophy of experimentation and play. Working with this approach, expired film can often be inspired, allowing for effects even more distorted, abstracted, over exposed, and so on. The fact that film has passed it’s sell by date, does not mean it will not work, but instead suggests that the temperamental nature of the film maybe exacerbated somewhat by the length of time since the chemicals had been mixed, the film had been produced; all of these factors that will contribute to the final resulting image.
Currently, the Open Eye shop stocks five different types of Impossible film in both colour and monochrome, including the classic white frame packs and the rarer black frame editions. Alongside these are fun ‘Skins Edition’ packs, which include varying designs around the borders of the image surface. All of our Impossible film is specifically intended for use with Polaroid’s most popular cameras: the Polaroid SX-70 and Polaroid 600. Expired instant film is unpredictable, allowing artists and photographers, and absolutely anybody else to express their creativity with just a single click (and however else you can alter your polaroid).
Impossible Project is releasing a brand new camera in May, this year. Link below.
https://uk.impossible-project.com/pages/impossible-i-1-analog-instant-camera