South Downs captured on very expired Polaroid film
If there is a material I can extract an image from I will try my hardest to do so. I obtained a few boxes of Polaroid sheet film that expired in 1982, no hope of the original chemicals working. However, it normally produces an interesting paper type negative, so with these ancient examples I experimented and found a method to develop exposed sheets using normal developer.
It works, and the negative having lived through many heating/cooling, dry/damp cycles in its life produced an image with some mottling and fine fibre marks. These ‘defects’ can give a scene a nuanced feeling or energy, unveiling a particular felt sense.
In late summer I did many walks along these hills with magnificent open views to sea or inland over the hedge-rowed fields of the farms below. I found the walks bucolic and peaceful as you wander into a space shared with sheep and cows grazing, calmly, contentedly. Still, the landscape has a harshness; the chalky soil, sometimes just bare chalk; rutted, pebbly pathways; the prickly gorse and windswept trees; the unbounded pasture and fields or craggy, chalk cliffs; the unsettling sense of exposure to the elements. From the first test exposure I took I felt that the images produced from this material would emphasise that stark, rugged beauty.
I think these would make interesting photopolymer intaglio prints so plan to work on a series.
