Polaroid Portraits

I’m very excited about this technique I’ve started to use for photographing children. It uses a 4x5 camera which is basically a lens and a film plane connected by lightproof bellows, you have to hide under a dark cloth to be able to focus it. It’s big, bulky, slow to use and requires the subject to be still! Not the best choice for photographing children but if you get it right, with the right subject the results are unbelievable. I shoot them on Polaroid 55, which gives an instant positive and negative. The negative will often have quirky, unpredictable “imperfections” which add to the edgy feel of the medium. A straight print can be made from the negative or it can be scanned, manipulated and put onto canvas.