I turn to my Hermes typewriter for a Polaroid project
This typewriter is planted on a white table in my living room.
It sits silently most days, but lumbers to life when inspiration strikes.
This usually entails pounding out quick little quotes and reminders – a minute here, a minute there.
Sometimes though, I’ll treat it to a healthy beating of free writing, when I need to get away from the laptop and computer screen.
Writers need to explore as many different writing styles, incarnations, purposes and platforms as possible. And for me, the typewriter provides a weird nostalgic, etched-in-stone, creative and therapeutic need: like the words will forever be buried and protected from the digital spotlight’s preservatives and exposure.
However, they (the words) will also fade, suffer the elements, show their age, die and decay.
Instant film follows a similar cycle, and maybe that’s why my typewriter was such a great subject for this year’s Roid Week project.
Like last year, I found out about Roid Week at the last minute.
But unlike last year, I had much less time in my week to devote to a photo project. When I saw Roid Week 2013 was upon us, I only had about an hour to spare on a Monday night.
So I messed with the lamp and lighting for a couple minutes and took these two shots of my typewriter – without thinking much other than, “Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.”
I wasn’t expecting much in the poor lighting, and hurried mindset. But when I flipped over the film later in the night, I loved how these photos turned out.
I think they capture the typewriter’s mood really well. The dark, blurry, off-centered typewriter seems foreboding, yet unavoidably inviting.
Also I unknowingly stuck to the lessons learned from last year’s project: I used a scanner to upload the images, paid close attention to holding the camera still, overcompensated for the dark lighting and waited over 40 minutes before uploading the images.
I suppose the lesson learned from this year’s project is to set a reminder in my calendar for Roid Week 2014, so I have more time to plan for the project next year.
Photo details:
- Camera: Polaroid One Step
- Impossible Film SX-70
- Exposure: Opened all the way
- Lighting: desk lamp