Hey photo friends, Erik here with my quick 2 cents on a new product that has sparked some debate here in the CJ Studio. The Impossible Project has a Kickstarter campaign for their new “Impossible Instant Lab”, which will “transform your digital iPhone images into real instant photographs that you can touch, caress and share with friends.” Take a look at the Kickstarter video for all the details:
I should love this thing. I mean, it combines Polaroids with iPhone Photography with Kickstarter! What’s more hip and awesome than that? The charm wears off for me quickly though when I realize that all of this is just taking pictures of pictures. Is there any artistic merit here? I respect the tangible nature of instant analog photography, but more than that I respect the difficulty, unpredictability, and commitment it takes to do it well. In my opinion, all of that is lost when you’re using an instant camera more or less as a printer that connects to your iPhone. We LOVE our iphone dearly, but this gadget isn’t about that. Does an analogue printer of digital undermine instant analogue photography?
What do you think? Like I said, I should love this thing, but I don’t know
I used to take pictures of the TV back when I was first learning about photography back in the film days. If I could find any of the prints I made, I could take an iPhone photo of them, and use this thing to print them back out. Wouldn’t that be ironic–I think.
It’s kinda neat. IF I bought such a thing I have a feeling that I would use it once or twice, but after that it would be collecting dust in the corner. For me it would be a purchase out of pure curiosity and novelty. Not much beyond that.
Now on one hand I totally agree that it is a wth? but any process you can hack to bring in uncontrollable variables to your art is a bit interesting. So you have the variable of the impossible film as well as the ability to move the camera or introduce random light leaks, your now looking at something close to the holga phenomenon .
Still not sure that makes it better but if I got a free one I could think of things to do that would make it more interesting possibly.
The first time I saw this I scratched my head wondering why the hell would I want that thing. I don’t.
As an instant film user, I’m not in love with it either. I’d rather keep my iPhone using Instagram and my polaroid land cameras pumping out true instant film. It’s a glorified (and overpriced) printer and doesn’t give the experience that polaroid gives us all. For $300 I can buy ALOT of Fuji FP-100C and FP-3000BW Film, and a land camera on craigslist with a better experience.