The "Painting with Light" Story

It was an ordinary day. I had just finished my graduate course at Millersville University in Photography. Our task in the course was to attempt to devise something new and creative in the field of photography. Quite a task it was. I thought of going the route of high contrast or maybe solarization, but seems like everyone else had the same idea. This was the time in history that the Polaroid was still big. I was at home working on my course idea and had the good old SX-70 Land Camera with a Sonar focusing device on it out to take a few shots. This camera uses Time-Zero film which comes in packs of 10 pictures. I had taken a few photos and laid them down on my desk for future use. For some unknown reason I laid a piece of notebook paper on top of them and proceeded to jot notes to myself. After finishing my notes, I picked up the paper and realized I had ruined the Polaroids underneath it. Or had I!! Wow! I realized I had devised a technique that would give me a sure “A” for the class. The pressure of the pen on the paper had created markings in the Polaroids which made me realize that I could control the results. I took a new photo with the SX-70 and used a wooden stick to move the liquid between the two layers of film around to give it a look of a painting. The liquid, known as emulsion, hardens in about two hours which gives you that time to manipulate the emulsion with whatever you want to use. Voila! My professor was going to be impressed. Indeed he was. And so was everyone else in the class. I started making photos of local historical places and offering them for sale. Really went over big. My only problem was that every print was an original or one of a kind, since you get no negative with Polaroid film. I came up with the name “Painting With Light” for my creation. I used this technique in my Photography class that I taught at MTHS. Students really enjoyed it. A few of the students entered prints made like this in the National Scholastic Art and Photography Contest and won national awards. My business grew when I found a lab who could make negatives from my prints so I could have multiple copies made of each Polaroid. Then, K-Mart opened a store near me and installed a machine that I could make very good prints from my original Polaroids. Everything was falling in place for a thriving business. By now I had included beach scenes to my collection of offerings. I had them for sale at various locations along the Chesapeake, an art gallery in Stone Harbor, NJ and at The Tag Shop in Lancaster. Then, in 2007 my business became threatened when Polaroid stopped production of the Time-Zero film. I now could only sell the prints that I had made in the previous few years. What to do? I’ll raise the prices. Why not? I’m now selling collector’s items that can never be made again!! Oh, by the way, I got the “A” for the classs. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Samples are top left: Central Market in Lancaster, PA; center right: Orient Beach in St. Martin; bottom left: Stone Harbor Marshlands