I started shooting Polaroid around late 2010 and converted completely to instant film exclusively around the beginning of 2011. I always had envisioned myself as a filmmaker, writing scripts and directing my own films. But never had access to cast and crew of people, or at least the motivation formulate one of my own. A friend of mine encouraged me to start shooting 35mm film to fill the movie-making void. So I found my dad's old Olympus OM2 and went to town. I was never particularly satisfied with the aesthetic of my photography, always altering colors and tones to get that "specific look" I wanted. The closest I could get was to buy expired film.
Eventually that same friend told me about the impossible project. So I started looking at picture archives on Flickr of Polaroids. A lightbulb went off. This was exactly what I had been looking for. A medium that perfectly accentuated every visual aspect that I had been going for and editing my 35mm film to look like. I had no idea Polaroids were so versatile and cinematic. One of the biggest draws tho, were that Polaroids, especially when placed side by side, look like a storyboard collage for a film. So the style I started to develop, was to tell a story with each shot I took.
A personal philosophy I've always held dear to my heart since it's inception is a phrase I came up with called "The Only Magic Left is Art." The meaning in a nutshell is this: Acknowledging the supernatural element of art, how it is still unexplainable on how or why we do it and where it comes from and that ultimately it is a reflection of our "divine" nature. Whatever your interpretation of "divine" may be. It is something bigger than ourselves. This has always been the underlying influence of all my art pieces.
