Mike Brodie aka "The Polaroid kid"

Its not often you come across photos that totally blow you away, Ive been lucky enough to stumble across such photos twice in two days, yes yes lucky me, and by default lucky you! The first was The Polaroid House and the second is a series of photos called "Ride'n Dirty Face" by a "accidental documentary photographer" Mike Brodie.

What the kid did was photograph his friends, their homes and life styles, Sounds pretty run of the mill huh! Not so run of the mill is the fact that their homes are train carriages and box cars. Their lives aren't so much squeaky American clean as they are gritty and dirty. The resulting photos and exhibition will show you a cross section of middle America you never knew existed....

At first I thought they were shots from some crazy new tim burton movie, or from some far off war torn country, but no, this my friends is America.

You can check out the exhibition by clicking here, and purchase his prints by visiting the needles and pens store here... now if you'll excuse me one must go and pick ones jaw off the floor.

The Polaroid House - California

The Below is a project i think about all the time.... Its just one of those things that stay with you for life. A story you stumbled across when you were young, a image that stays with you forever.

The Polaroid house was a project with a difference.... So i thought Id re post this story for the new readers - its a special one.

No its not some fancy mansion owned by Sir Edward Land, its a dilapidated old house about 4 hours drive south of LA.... and unfortunately it is no longer.... but it was for a little while...and that's what I'm here to tell you about.

Photographer Kim stumbled across this abandoned old shack on a road trip one sunny afternoon "It really struck me" she says "and I knew I'd be back, it was so quaint, representing a bygone era" The physical decay of this house became the poster child for the decay and impending death of Polaroid Film when, on June 9, 2008 Kim decided to make it "The Polaroid House" What exactly does "The Polaroid House" entail? Essentially its just a space to display Polaroids, like art is displayed in a gallery.... but it became much more than that to Kim and Polaroid lovers the world over.

Sadly not everyone respected the site as Kim did and the owner of the house was forced to ask Kim to kindly take it all down, The last Polaroid fell on April 4, 2009 but has been immortalised forever on film.

Click here to see more photos of the house, there's something about it, it just takes your breath away. To read more about Kim and the sadness she felt when "the glory faded" from this beautiful project pay a little visit to Holga Blog.

Enjoy

The Traveling Camera Project

Sometimes I worry I'll run out of content for this blog, Lets be honest, I've kinda painted myself into a corner limiting myself to Film (not digital) Photography, but when I stumble across groups like this its a corner I'm proud to be in.

Sean Tubridy is one trusting human being, He put a call out to Flickr members world wide to join somewhat of a "pass it on" list.... Pass what on you ask? A Polaroid camera and a pack of film. The idea being that the camera resides with each person on the list for no longer than 48 hours, just enough time to take a self portrait and mail it on, (or pay if fwd if your a fan of Kevin Spacey movies)

So far its reached about 20 people, it stalled for about 4 months with some lazy bugger but is on the move again now so if your interested in taking part click here to join and here if you want to perv on the portraits taken thus far.

Calling all engineers and industrial designers...

If you know anything about latex, coating or gelatin bases then the dudes at The Impossible Project need to speak to you. They are in the middle of constructing the new Polaroid film and have hit somewhat of a technical snag.... Email latex@theimpossibleproject.com if you think you can help... Perhaps you are related to or are currently sleeping with a engineer or industrial designer, if so i highly recommend you exercise your powers of persuasion and get them to drop the project a line.

Landscape polaroids....

The general theory is Polaroid photos only look good when you fill the whole frame, you know, 5 laughing friends 3 circus midgets and a partridge in a pair tree all crammed into that tiny little square... but just because everyone says that's what you should do doesn't mean you have to. If I told you to take 12 steps off a 11 step pier or go play with the trucks on the highway you wouldn't hop right to it now would you?

Point is ignore all that... experiment with negative space... especially big beautiful blue sky days, the results are just as good, if not better!

The photo above was taken on my Polaroid Job Pro 600 at Cunningham pier in Geelong.

More From Mike Brodie.

There are some fantastic shots here and a nice little summation to go along with them if you, like me, are jones'ing for more of The Polaroid Kid Or lap up, first person, why he does what he does here.. what a bloody crazy cat!

And here

More of the Polaroid House

Some more shots by Kim, The photographer behind the "Polaroid House" project I blogged about below... Click here to see more, it will blow your mind.

Awkward Family Photos...

Awkward family photos. Don't play dumb... we all have them, and no longer shall they be buried in shoe boxes and stashed underneath the bed... be proud of that over sized straw hat with the giant sunflower sewn into the side your mum made you wear (yes that was me)... or just how high your shorts were up around your neck all those years ago....

Click here to share your embarrassment with the world... you know you want to!

35mm awesomeness

It was my birthday last weekend and I dusted off the old Pentax MZ 50 I saved my pennies and bought when i was 17 years old, it was my first camera and it served me well, so it seems only fitting i take it out of retirement 10 years later...

The shots above were taken with Kodak Elite Chrome 35mm film, or slide film to most people... I have it cross processed (developed in C-41, the same chemicals you use to develop normal negative film) and it really saturates the colours and gives you the most vibrant blues!

With almost everything in our lives digital, touch screen or interactive its nice to return back to the simple life... no cramming our heads around a 3 inch screen to see what the photo looked like, or worse insist it be deleted if god forbid, you failed to capture someones good side.

Just point, shoot and worry about the results later... or better yet not worry about them at all.

The Polaroid triptych series

Ok so im giving you homework... and im giving myself homework too.

Grab your favorite polaroid, your 3 favorite people and set about whipping up your very own Polaroid Triptytch.... its pretty simple, line up each person and take the following happy snaps... head shot, middle shot, feet shot... blue tack them to your fridge door, sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

The idea came from American artist Lee Summers (pronounce artist the fancy french way its much more fun) he aimed to capture a persons identity, importalize their character in three simple Polaroids.... rad idea huh!?!

You know what else is a rad idea... clocking up a visit to his website where you are greeted by this simple message...

Hello.
My name is Lee.
I work at an ad agency is Atlanta
I like hamburgers more than you.
Lets be friends.

How could you say no to a offer like that!

Live Art

Somewhere in Brooklyn, three photographers were each given a Polaroid camera, 150 exposures, a bag of tools, an audience of 300 people dressed as grandmothers.... Already this sounding not so normal right?

Well they were also given two short hours in which to take and assemble 150 photographs into a mosaic, telling some kind of a story.... Shit got a little crazy click here to find out more...

The 1000 Journals Project

Currently 1000 journals are traveling from hand to hand through out the world. They aren't curing world famine or eradicating debt or anything amazing like that, they are simply floating about, living for a little while with each person they come across, allowing that person to make a few pages their own by adding something to the journal, whether it be a story, photograph or drawing before passing it on to the next lucky stranger.

It s so bloody popular you have a better chance of winning the lottery than stumbling across one of these coveted books.... disappointing i know, but don't despair, 1001 journals has recently launched and you can sign up to receive a book here.... while being a fantastic world wide collaborative creative project that's not the only thing that grabbed my attention about this movement.... What really got me was a little tab on the left hand side of the website titled "The search for 114"

What is the search for 114? Well this journal (and #194) were contributed to by a fellow called Andy, who, in typical Aussie fashion had the nick name bearfut. Tragically Andy was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident in 2001 and his family are desperately trying to track down these journals as naturally they would like to transcribe these entries and have forever a little piece of there son.

Journal #114 was taken to Hobart, Tasmania and #194 was taken to the Rainbow Serpent Festival in 2001 and given to a girl name Claire who then passed it on to a DJ named Becca, its last know location was Beaufort and most likely heading for Melbourne. You never know you just may have some information that could help.

Besides searching for the illusive #114 and kick starting 1001 Journals, the mystery fellow behind this little project has just released a book and documentary... click on anyone of these links to find out more.

The Anonymous Photo Project 2

Ive blogged about these crazy cats before right here, and am just such a fan of what they do I just felt the need to remind you all that they exist.

What is it they do you ask? Well do you remember book crossing? the whole leave a book on a park bench and track it as it gets read around the world type deal, well the dudes at Anonymous photo project do something similar but with disposable cameras... They leave them on park benches for folk like you and me to pick up, carry with us through life for a little while and post them back to headquarters to be printed and published on there site.

The shots above are a small example of the gold that comes from the returned cameras. There is approx 200 in circulation around the world.... so keep your eyes peeled people

Click here to find out more.

Is this You Photo Project

Ever stumbled across a photo on the ground on your merry way home? or jumped into a photo booth with your friends only to find passport shots left behind by some random stranger? Ever think they might just want that photo back? The dudes at "Is this you?" did, and they've gone all good Samaritan on the world and have created a home for these photos online in a bid to reconnect them with their rightful owners.

Not only is this a bloody nice thing to do, its a great place for a giggle if you have some time to waste... Click here to check out the goods!