SX-70 POLAROID Process Statement
I have been making SX-70 Polaroids since the mid 1970s. In 1985 to 1988,
I received a Polaroid Sponsorship specifically for my original technique of hand coloring Polaroids with Caran
D’Asche oil based crayons. The sponsorship also gave me access to the 20x24” camera in New York City in
1987.
I am a painter and photographer and I approach photography as a painter.
I travel extensively and so most of my images are of foreign lands, concentrating mostly on architecture, antiquity,
derelict and /or geometric structures, landscapes, urban walls and various random visual oddities.
After exposing the film, I handcolor the acetate surface of the photos, sometimes covering the entire 3”x3” area
with oil pigment. This process enables me to cover, blend, eradicate and heighten the color and add real texture
to the images making them look very much like very small oil paintings.
A related series I call Distressed Polaroids involves the use of very old and outdated SX-70 film. When exposed,
colored, torn, cut and manipulated the prints and images appear pockmarked, aged, scratched, worn with ghostly
discolorations where the developing pigment has dried or fallen off completely.
This deconstruction process turns the Polaroids into translucent bits of pigmented acetate with no back or mat left.
In the end a very minimal and ephemeral object.
I continue the transformation process by scanning the original Polaroids and enlarge them into C-prints and
Giclees to 8x8”, 20x20” and finally into Duratrans that are displayed in illuminated 4’x4’ light boxes. A future
series will be illuminated Polaroid images spanning 4’x12 feet.
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