It all began on the way back in 2009 when I was invited on the Lovers' Land Trip.
First time I became aware of the Polaroid Land Camera was when Dustin Humphrey's took these two portraits of Dave 'Rasta' at Angourie Point, New South Wales Australia. Which also birthed my obsession for seaweed rice crackers with avocado.
My first portrait, taken by Dustin as well. We were surfing all day in the hot sun and I fell asleep amongst the rocks (I must have been damn tired).
2nd Portrait by Dustin touching up the Bad Don't/Rad Don't/Rad Aunt aka the ever evolving named board in Byron Bay. (the 2nd board ever shaped by D.T.)
Portrait of Ozzie Wright, Mylee and Rocky, Byron Bay by Dustin from Lovers' Land Trip.
Check out Ozzie's Blog here, he's the original d'essai pilote of the culture that is ___________.
And while you're there sniff around for his new ukulele tracks.
It's kind of a case of the chicken and the egg for me when it comes to my polaroid land camera discovery because I think it was definitely a photo finish between Dustin and Michael Crawley. I'm still pretty sure I first came about them via Dustin but if not it was MC fo sure. The mad bastard and soon to be proud dad, says film gives him a ''big dirty stiffy'' (I think we're blood brothers) and is a huge reason I'm a huge advocate of shooting on all sorts of film. The man introduced me to sweet hidden photolabs around our home town, 120 film, x-proccessing and basically held a gun to my head if I didn't by certain cameras.
Not only does he obsess over photography but he also can actually take a mad photo, see here.
Just a few of MC's exposures below.
My baby. I stumbled upon her in an op-shop (thrift store) somewhere on the Gold Coast I think. I was in (I still am, just in denial) a mad camera haze and bought every half decent/half amazing looking camera that I could find in my price range. And aren't I glad I've held onto her. Polaroid Auto 320 Land Camera. Yes! I've always wanted to buy film for her but always thought it was too expensive and wasn't even sure if she'd work. But one pre body surfing session later, Claudio Kirac came by to pick me up to go to the beach and behold, he had a similar Polaroid and asked if he could take a portrait.
Knowing mine was hiding upstairs amongst my personal museum of cameras I told Claud I'd grab it out after the beach and see if she worked. Much to my disappointment we opened the battery cartridge and discovered it took some weird pre-70's battery that a kid of my age would have most likely seen and would definitely have trouble finding. Alas we jumped on Google as we seem to do for every question/search these days and read that a 123 camera battery could be used with the help of some sticky tape and foil. Foiled and sticky taped in up and.....bu-bow. No deal. Sad face. After Claud left though I was convinced that I could make it happen, merely because she was in such good condition. Shortly after opening the battery cartridge I noticed that I'd put the ''+'' on the "-" end, FAIL! Flipped the battery around, shut the door, pulled the trigger and in the words of Crawley I got a ''big dirty stiffy'' courtesy of the noise of the shutter 'clicking'.
The man below who put the icing on my Land Camera cupcake, CK. These are the very first two of hopefully thousands of photos I will with a polaroid land camera. When the first photo came out developed, (photo on the right) Claud and I were like little girls getting the Barbie Doll House for Christmas. Our screams raised flocks of birds from trees and shattered the windows of his house. My smile was up to my eyes (not hard for me and my size 10/10 teeth) and motivation further than I could see.
To wrap this monster post up I'd like to thank Dustin, Michael and Claud for all being part of my Land Camera birthing and can't wait to send them all photos I take along the way, as well as post them up here. Adios xxx
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