Today, digitally armed to take, view, and share a photograph within seconds, we think nothing of the phrase « instant camera. » But if we look at polaroids as « instant light » our views might change. In 1999, Mikael Kennedy bought a Sx70 Polaroid camera and his romance started. Coupled with his love for travelling and some photography books later, Mikael began and continues to provide us with some instant light.
NB: What camera do you use?
MK: Polaroid SX70 for the most part, I've been trying to cut down with how many camera's I travel with. I just picked up a Canon AE-1 though that I'll start carrying once I run out of Polaroid Film.
NB: What is your favourite filmstock?
MK: Nothing ever really compared to Polaroid's SX70 film but it's so rare (even was back when I was travelling full time), most of my work is shot on Polaroid 779 film.
NB: For the photo submitted, why are they your favourite?
MK: These are from my last artists’ book titled 'Between Dog & Wolf'which was about that line between domestic & wild, that pull of both worlds that I was feeling at the moment. But each one is a moment in a life, they are beautiful little specimens of a life lived.
NB: When and why did you decide to shoot polaroids?
MK: Sometime in 1999 I found a Polaroid SX70 in a thift store, I'd never seen anything like it before, so I figured out how to get it working with normal Polaroid film and it just took off from there. It was an asthetic and a function choice. Polaroids are magic, nothing looks like them, and at the time I was broke and travelling so having a self contained photo process was crucial.
NB: What are the pros and cons about shooting polaroids?
MK: The only real con I see is that as the years go by and the film gets further and further past it's expiration date you can't get the colours like you used to. It's interesting using a terminal process for your art, because I have no control over it, the images are getting less and less vibrant, the film less reactive and that informs how I work now.
NB: And finally, the polaroid, as an instantaneous image (pre-digital) plays a disruptive role in the experience of time itself, both from the sense of an industrially induced image (the only instant film) and the sense of capturing, stopping time. How do you feel about that?
MK: I have a thing when I'm travelling where I want look at the Polaroids until I'm home so as to not disrupt the experience, a criteria for all my shirts is that they have a pocket big enough to fit a polaroid in it, so I shoot it and put it away until I'm done. In terms of using a one of a kind photography process to stop time and capture moments in a life I think that becomes the point, to freeze time, each one is a relic of of a life, they become artifacts.
NB : And poetry. Thank you.
Mikael Kennedy