Shake it Like a Metaphorical Picture

2008 Jul 17
Comments 42
Published In Design, Photography
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Sometime next year, Polaroid will stop producing instant film. There have been lots of people jumping in to help save the format, and others writing some striking eulogies, as the rest of us start mourning the oncoming loss. But one thing I can’t quite shake is what Polaroid represents to me, something that will likely be on its way out the door too: the visual metaphor of a photograph.

Tangible Metaphors

That little picture window, framed in white with justthismuch more spacing on the bottom so you can hold it. The fucking thing was begging to be held, passed around, shared, pinned up, torn, and written on. It’s a triumphant visual institution. The humble visual of a Polaroid picture, practically synonymous with the idea of photography, will eventually start fading from the general consciousness like the cassette tape, film reel, and rotary telephone. Sure, we’ll remember this stuff, but our grandkids and great-grandkids will just look at us with quiet concern as we ramble on about the sounds we heard coming off giant vinyl disks.

How long do we hold onto past iconography to represent modern concepts? The record might only represent the concept of music to some, perhaps the cassette a few more, the CD more still, but how long before iTunes needs to change its icon because the CD metaphor isn’t what currently means “music”?

The process of photography has seen so many changes in the past decade, that even the methods we use to describe the act have changed. When someone mimes you the act of taking your photo, chances are they don’t hold an imaginary box up to their eye anymore, they hold an imaginary box a foot away from their face, as if they are looking at a digital camera’s LCD screen. The language, mannerisms, and visual associations we have with photography are being replaced.

Making Meaning

I recently stumbled onto Jamie Livingston’s Photo of the Day (more background), a daily slice of one man’s life from 1979-1997 told through Polaroids (ending when cancer claimed the photographer). 6,697 Polaroids. That’s a striking number of photos to take by any measure, especially to keep it going everyday for nearly 20 years. It’s a testament to both the instant photo format and the act of unintentional art. But how much more inspiring is it to imagine all of those photos, not on a computer screen somewhere, but in boxes and albums, carefully cataloged by hand. Needing to be held by hand.

The Polaroid instant camera pioneered a huge movement in photography, both from technical and aesthetic aspects, and will be sorely missed. There are plenty of people who will continue to produce traditional photographs, me among them, but even as we do, and even if a new manufacturer picks up the torch to continue making instant film, and I hope someone does, the void in the public consciousness has begun growing. But, as our media moves into the virtual spaces on our hard drives, their tangible counterparts grow more foreign to us, never truly being lost, but fading into quaint ephemera.

Yes, I’m aware of the irony of this entry with regard to my last, and it’s fully intentional. Let’s call it artistic license.

Comments 42
Design Tags Black, Blue, News Gothic, Pink, White, Yellow
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42 Comments

Permalink for this comment andi farr says: July 17, 2008

Great article, couldn’t agree more about the tangibility of polaroids. One thing – you didn’t even mention that they have physical depth and structure!

The slightly squishy section at the bottom containing the developer changes them from images printed on paper into a real object – and a stack of ten polaroids is far more seductive to hold than any number of ordinary photographs.

On a side note, I’m so impressed by the way your art-directed articles are turning out. This is my favourite one yet – love it.
Permalink for this comment Chris Harrison says: July 17, 2008

Knowing that every article is going to be presented differently, forces me to come look at your site. That’s awesome! Viewing this entry in an RSS reader just doesn’t do it justice. :)

I hardly get photos printed out anymore. Losing the tangibility of a printed photo is something I miss, but often forget about.
Permalink for this comment Mike M says: July 17, 2008

This is one of those things [polaroids] I always associate with reliving my parents memories. Going through their old photos, with that slight orangeish tint, seeing how young they looked, the fun they had with friends. Just so many memories in these polaroids.

Any children I may have, or just others in the future who might be looking at my old photographs, will not get the chance to go through my old memories with the same sense of fascination. So many have converted to digital (myself included), and much is likely to be lost if stored on CD and not backed up every five years. How many digital photos have I lost over the past few years out of neglect, or because of hard drives kicking?

Not that we can’t print them (heck even professionally), but the polaroid made it so simple and quick. An instant in time, an instant to print.
Permalink for this comment Matt Ventre says: July 17, 2008

Another excellent article, Jason! It’s truly sad to watch as the institution of the instant photograph fades into memory.

Your point on tangible metaphors is quite similar to a question I was asking myself not long ago about the metaphor of the 3.5 inch floppy diskette as a save function in computer applications.

Though I’m not as troubled about the loss of the floppy diskette, I still ponder the implications of rapidly changing media as metaphors in everyday life.
Permalink for this comment Steve Killen says: July 17, 2008

Wow love the design, the most different and my favourite so far.

I am still very worried about the loss of Polaroid pictures. In my brief foray into film, I thought of nothing else to represent photos or past events and they have been used so effectively in films like Memento.

That said we do evolve and get used to the new. The horse and cart is no longer seen as a means of travel. My concern is we are moving away from the tactile and physical but I’m sure we will all eventually get used to this and find new iconography rather than cling to the old.
Permalink for this comment Jason Campbell says: July 17, 2008

And you said you were retiring the Slanty Photo Treatment™. Don’t you try to hide it by leaving the image area out of the equation by “flipping it over”.

I KNOW! I know what you are doing, first you lay the groundwork to excuse yourself from culpability with your “Kiss of Death” post then you slip into the VERY NEXT POST that which you have so vehemently discounted as a viable design option. You are shrewd sir, very shrewd indeed but you fool NO ONE.

Your love of the Slanty Photo can not be hidden no matter how hard you try, you may as well embrace it and stand with your head held high so that we may direct our snickering and giggles squarely at you. While we forcefully hide all signs of envy in our dimly lit, but well air conditioned (wink to Jeffery), design caves.

THE JIG IS UP SIR!

Oh and love the rainbow.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 17, 2008

@ andi farr : I can’t believe I forgot the squish. The squish!

@ Jason Campbell : I’m hiding behind artistic license on this one. And anyway, I see this as more of an illustration than a design technique. This is different than how I’ve used it in the past, as a design mechanism. :)
Permalink for this comment Jonathan Snook says: July 17, 2008

Shifting iconography is a fascinating topic and it will be interesting to see what metaphors we’ll use in 10 or 20 years. It may very well be that some stuff like the floppy for Save will be with us for a long time and we’ll end up telling our kids what the deep, tangible meaning behind it is. Just like we’ll tell them why the keyboard has the letters arranged in the way they are. There’s a tinge of sadness in the passing of these things, the memories we have… I still remember fondly playing with 8” floppies.

And once again, I have to comment on the art direction. Absolutely fabulous. I love the balance between the two columns. The matching baselines. It shows that you’ve paid attention to the content just as much as you’ve paid attention to the design. And it keeps bringing me back to the site. I want to see what it’ll look like. THIS is what online newspapers and magazines should be doing. Give people a reason to come back. Kudos, once again. (and now, how do I replicate that success…? ;) )
Permalink for this comment Steve says: July 17, 2008

Forget the write up you did… this entry is by far the nicest layout of your site rebuild / art direction / use of EE / yet! Beautiful!

(writing was ok too)
Permalink for this comment Jonathan Dobres says: July 17, 2008

Great article. One wonders how our iconography will change as our lives become increasingly digital, networked, and ultimately, abstract. After all, it’s easily been eight years since I saved something on a floppy, but how else do you represent a “save” icon? :-)
Permalink for this comment Brian Hefter says: July 17, 2008

It’s sad to see a unique medium like this die. I always felt that Polaroids were the grandpappy of digital photography. Maybe I should start pulling out my CF card after a shot and dance around shaking it. You can’t forget the shake or all the methods associated with trying to get a faster development out of it. I also enjoy that you’re stuck with the final product. There is no film or digital file to post-process. If trying to be creative, you can only be creative in the moment, and sometimes the results were spectacular.
Permalink for this comment John Arthur says: July 17, 2008

The iconography will change, but then it will still remain, too.

Victorolas are still synonymous with music, and I think they will keep a much stronger connection than Discmans (Discmen?) ever will, just because of their distinct shape.

Film reels will probably never fade out of style, because how will you use a DVD icon to differentiate film from music?

Actually, the way things are (currently) heading, since all media are converging toward a select few similar storage media, we’ll have to cling to older standards in order to differentiate the contents of the new storage.

Further, you still get fountain pens and even quills to indicate written documents and such. Ink bottles in your design software, etc. Even speed-graphic cameras.

Things change, but they stay the same, too. The polaroid will probably always make a strong case for representing the concept of a photograph, until they make the smell-o-graph, in which case I’ll want “Yello Smello” in the lower right corner of all my snaps.

JA
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 17, 2008

@ Jonathan Snook :

THIS is what online newspapers and magazines should be doing. Give people a reason to come back. Kudos, once again. (and now, how do I replicate that success…? ;) )

Thanks! I’m still getting acclimated to publishing this way, so I’m taking it slow, but I’m hoping to keep pushing things a bit each time.

@ John Arthur :

Things change, but they stay the same, too.

Yes, and no. I think these things will continue to play some role as representations, but only as long as an easy link can be made with their modern equivalents. As was mentioned up-thread, people don’t use the horse and buggy to describe travel now because there’s too much of a gap between it and the modern equivalent. In fact, if it was used to describe travel, we would use it as a means to describe travel negatively.
Permalink for this comment Tom Watson says: July 17, 2008

As someone whose loved Polaroid for a long time and has recently gotten back into taking polaroid photos again, I can attest to being supremely “bummed out” about the (hopefully slow) death of the medium. There’s something truly magical about holding the physical photo in your had and watching that picture come to life. It’s instant, it’s physical and it’s a captured moment.

I love digital photography but it’s going to be hard to let shooting Polaroids go. I’ve stocked up, but I’m still holding out hope someone will pick up the film production.

You’re right though when you talk about the “void in the public consciousness has begun growing”. It’s a sad thing, but unfortunately an inevitable one.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 17, 2008

@ Tom Watson : Nice photos! I actually just won an auction for a SX-70 that’s in pristine shape. I’m probably post something about it here soon.
Permalink for this comment Aaron says: July 17, 2008

Excellent article. I think it will be interesting to see what happens to the iconography as time passes.

I think that the further we are removed from any connection to something, that thing becomes irrelevant. Rock music, for instance. Rock music as we know it is the music of our parents’ generation and even in some cases our grandparents’ generation. Eventually the image of a long-haired rebel with bluejeans and a screaming tube amp will become a thing of the past.

It’s sad to see these images disappear over time, but will their replacements really be so bad, or will they be adequate in conveying the same meaning that the old imagery does for us today?

By the way, the design is awesome. Made me think it was the 80’s or something. I love this concept where each post is uniquely art-directed. I had never thought of that before.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 17, 2008

@ Aaron :

By the way, the design is awesome. Made me think it was the 80’s or something. I love this concept where each post is uniquely art-directed. I had never thought of that before.

Thanks! But I can only take a smidge of credit for it. The design is inspired by Paul Giambarba’s branding work for Polaroid, and incorporates some of Polaroid’s identity colors as well as News Gothic, Polaroid’s logo typeface for a time.
Permalink for this comment bearskinrug says: July 17, 2008

Well, I just hope that red octogons continue to mean stop. At least until I’m done driving and writing this comment.
Permalink for this comment Fernando says: July 17, 2008

Great article! The best thing is that I was thinking about the same thing recently.

The great thing about iconography is how it holds to the past and conveys meaning now-a-days. Think of the Phone icon in airport signage, or the floppy disk to save files still used in Word 2007. It may look ridiculous today, but it works. There are two scenarios to think about: the icon holds the most simple way to convey a meaning and thus, it remains current and fashion-safe. Think a taxi cab icon (squared 70’s car) or a computer icon (The most dificult one).

And then is the case where the whole paradigm shifts, behaviors change and technology evolves in a way that the object metaphore stands as a safety net to the real world. Internet and software iconography, for example: the floppy, the CD, the can of film are tangible metaphors of our constantly evaporating and object-less world of data.

It’s not that objects are dead, but certainly, technology evolves faster than our apprehension for signs and visual metaphors. That’s a fact. So know, it seems, that instead of representing objects and containers, we represent it’s content, as a way of embodying and apprehending digital data.

It will be fun to watch how these visual metaphors change, and how much we hold to the past to understand our world.
Permalink for this comment Rick Kobylinski says: July 17, 2008

As a 55 year old dinosaur who is old enough to remember when Polaroids first became popular, I will not be shedding any tears for the demise of instant cameras or for that matter, film cameras. I’ve shot my share of images in both formats and can appreciate the feeling of holding a good quality photo print in hand. I’ve also spent thousands of dollars on buying, shooting and developing Kodak & Fuji film then holding my breath as I opened that envelope from the camera store to see how many acceptable prints I got from a 36 shot roll of film. I hate to tell you the percentage of good versus bad. Buying better cameras as time went along made me more responsible for taking better snapshots and recording family history. When digital cameras came onto the scene, the idea of seeing the snapshot image immediately hooked me for good. Out of focus? Shoot again. Wrong ISO? Correct the setting and shoot again. Don’t like the composition on this shot? Recompose and shoot again. As for holding a print that you like in your hand, it’s cheap enough to send your image files to Walgreens or Wal-Mart and have them print them out for you, that is, after you’ve color corrected and sharpened the image. For that matter, you can scan your old polaroids for posterity, play with the images on your computer and print them out 20 years from now, even with the white bottom panel showing. To me, the most important thing is to keep shooting.
Permalink for this comment Jack Shedd says: July 18, 2008

Well written. Well designed.

Good god sir, have you no shame?
Permalink for this comment rafalski says: July 18, 2008

They did define an era in photography, in large part because they made sure they had no competition.
With a patent in hand, they were a bullyish monopoly, preventing instant photography from ever developing beyond their pricey product.
This said, I got my first Polaroid recently, at 34..
Permalink for this comment Brendan Falkowski says: July 18, 2008

Saw that wide banner and had to jump the reader to see the design. Loved this:

The fucking thing was begging to be held, passed around, shared, pinned up, torn, and written on. It’s a triumphant visual institution.
Permalink for this comment Matt Radel says: July 18, 2008

Love it JSM. Spot on. I was never a huge Polaroid guy, but I fear that this could truly be the beginning of the end for traditional film as a whole. It’ll be a sad, sad day if darkrooms become a thing of the past.
Permalink for this comment Kyle Weems says: July 18, 2008

Great post about the changing of icons over time. Some of my friends are only five years younger than me, but when I talk about the ‘good old days’ of floppies, they think I’m talking about the 3.5” disks (which aren’t really floppy at all), not the bigger, flexible ones. It’s an interesting thought to wonder what an icon of a photo could become when Polaroids become a distant memory.

Like many of the others commentators, I am loving the way your site shifts from design to design with each post. It makes every visit distinct and enjoyable. And yes, now I’m wondering what it would take for me to implement such a feature myself.
Permalink for this comment scutdog says: July 18, 2008

The larger white space at the bottom of the print is because of the integrated reagent pocket. As the print is ejected the chemicals are squeezed out and spread onto the print.

I mention this to put forward that the extra space was not so that you can hold it, at least not primarily.

It’s an interesting example of a functional element creating an icon. (The non-integrated Polaroid prints were certainly not icons.)
Permalink for this comment Scaught says: July 18, 2008

This is sad, and I although I can sometimes deal with music becoming less and less of a tangible thing, photos themselves are a tangible object. I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that I can remember my grandmother sorting through her photos my whole life and just amazing me with all the memories people used to capture with a real film camera. Now everything’s all DSLR and no one seems to really take care of photographing our lives as our parents and our grandparents did. When my grandmother can look through her boxes and boxes of photos and find photos from just an outdoor day in the backyard, or a random dinner, that’s what I think I’m going to miss most about tangible photos. Looking at photos on a screen doesn’t do them justice.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 18, 2008

@ scutdog :

Wow, great background info, I hadn’t realized that’s what the bottom was for. It’s kind of nice to know too that the bottom was just a happy coincidence of the form.
Permalink for this comment Matt Balara says: July 18, 2008

Ah, you’ve gone and scratched the wound open again. I can’t keep my fingers off of scabs either.

I documented my life for a year on my site Polaroidiary, though not nearly as heroically as Mr. Livingston. It came out of reaction against the millions of un-things on my harddrive, and a wish to have a physical box somewhere, with physical photos in it, with real greasy fingerprints on them, underneath which I could see a year of my life. The whole thing was meant to be a book, but then I realised no one would ever see it – and I wanted to share it – so made a site out of it.

As someone who lugged around a beautiful old chrome and leather folding SX-70 every day for a year, Polaroid’s discontinuation of the magical film feels like the death of a friend. But it’s a death that was inevitable, and which I’m powerless to prevent. So I’ve bought up a stack of film which waits patiently in the back of my fridge for me to honour my dead friend with it.
Permalink for this comment Lea says: July 18, 2008

I marvel at your ability to write such thoughtful posts while also being able to design each of them. However, in many ways, it reminds me of “old school” design where people used to hand-code each page… now, I know that’s now what you do to all of this (hm?) but it certainly feels like it.

Do you feel the extra time you spend directing the art and design hinders you at all? Or, like I suspect, because the novelty of designing each post is still fresh, has it had the opposite effect: motivating you to post more often so you can design as often, too?

I know that the reason why some bloggers haven’t updated their blog in a while is because of time constraints, so I’m in awe at how you’re able to also blog regularly and design something new regularly.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 18, 2008

@ Matt Balara : Polaroidiary is full of beautiful stuff!

@ Lea :

Do you feel the extra time you spend directing the art and design hinders you at all?

Actually, no. So far, as been the case the entire time I’ve had a site, the hardest part for me is still the writing. Sometimes it feels like is takes ages to write a post. Maybe I’m just self conscious about it though :)

I’ve had the idea for this post in my head since early this year, but I almost didn’t want to do it because I didn’t think my old site design could do it justice (one of the many reasons for the redesign). Once it was written, the design, coding, and testing, was a snap. The system I’ve set up allows for pretty quick transfer from design to coded page.

I’m trying to stick to fairly minimal designs, both so it doesn’t hinder the process of posting, but to also semi-realistically test the viability of doing this in a publishing environment.

In the past I generally posted about once a week. The loose plan I have for myself now is to post at least once, but hopefully twice, a week. And those will likely be a more simple post about updates to my life/career happenings (or something that would otherwise end up in the default site design), and a more customized post like this one.
Permalink for this comment David says: July 19, 2008

I know it’s not the same, but perhaps a digital polaroid would help ease the pain?
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 19, 2008

@ David : Lovely! I think it would only ease the pain if it comes with the photo of the older couple :)
Permalink for this comment Riccardo Mori says: July 19, 2008

I really enjoy what you’re doing with your site, design-wise. However, the colour theme for this post was a visual nightmare for my eyes. Heh heh. But the Polaroid font and rainbow stripe are just beautiful!

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Rick
Permalink for this comment Hamranhansenhansen says: July 19, 2008

I met with a young friend recently, had dinner in a restaurant, no computers around. Over dessert she showed me her recent photos on her camera’s display, talking me through a little slideshow of her past week. The display was about the size of a Polaroid photo but much brighter and much more detailed.

From the camera, the photos go to her Facebook, so basically all her friends get copies, which is something that is almost impossible to do with a Polaroid print.

She mentioned a recent event and we called up that photo gallery from Facebook on my iPhone and flipped through dozens of photos, each one totally relevant to the current conversation. Again, the photos were about the size of Polaroid photos but much brighter and more detailed.

I had the last 3 years of my photo library on my iPhone, so I shared quite a few photos with her, even emailing her a couple of copies to keep.

The entire experience was completely transparent from a technology perspective. At no time did we suffer in any way for the lack of prints.

As for taking them, I take photos regularly with my iPhone solely because I can immediately email it to anyone in the world and know they can easily open it, because they are sent as a basic email with a 1 megapixel JPEG attachment. So it’s from my eyes to a friend’s eyes in a minute, even though she and her Blackberry are in another country from me.

It’s a shame Polaroid chose not to participate in digital photography, but I’m not missing them at all. Photography has moved on, even consumer photography.
Permalink for this comment Steven Southard says: July 20, 2008

Nicely written and and a visual treat. The slanty pictures at the top all blacked out like that worked so well. The image was totally equal to the words which brought in so many things from my childhood. Very thoughtful post. Setting-up and breaking rules is the bases of a lot of great design and so I’m starting to expect that with your site. Bravo!
Permalink for this comment Rus says: July 20, 2008

Soon no one will understand the song Hey Ya by OutKast
Permalink for this comment joe says: July 21, 2008

check out my polaroid based website haybale.org
Permalink for this comment Tobias Wright says: July 22, 2008

The first thing that popped into my head was the save icon in most applications. No one uses 3.5 floppies anymore, it just means save now.

I’m not sure what you call a metaphor that has outlived it’s comparison, but there certainly should be a word for it.
Permalink for this comment Ross Shannon says: July 30, 2008

I just watched Blade Runner over the weekend, and there’s a scene where Deckard consults a set of photographs, all of which have the Polaroid form factor. In 1982, the futurists working on the film (which is set in 2019, though a 2019 with prevalent flying cars) saw no need to deviate from this photographic medium.
Permalink for this comment moo says: August 07, 2008

I KNOW! I know what you are doing, first you lay the groundwork to excuse yourself from culpability with your “Kiss of Death” post then you slip into the VERY NEXT POST that which you have so vehemently discounted as a viable design option. You are shrewd sir, very shrewd indeed but you fool NO ONE.
Permalink for this comment Ron says: August 10, 2008

I always liked the sound those cameras make, from the time you press the shutter button to the ejection of the photograph from the camera.