Sunday, March 02, 2008

From The "Just Let It Go Already" File

Are there any stories about photography in the news? Yes, there are, and I'm moderately pleased that you asked.

Photography buffs mourning demise of the Polaroid era

"How do you transmit a digital picture?" asked Dolan, whose county includes areas with poor cellphone and radio reception. "We could be 60 miles (96 kilometres) from my office, and we have to take a picture of a car accident or a farm accident or a gunshot wound," he said. "You're a good distance from a computer hookup.''

So Dolan shoots Polaroids, slips them into an envelope, and ships them to the medical examiner along with the corpse. But with Polaroid's announcement this month that it is halting production of instant film, Dolan and thousands of others are forced to hunt for alternatives.
I guess if my typical day included photographing fatal farm incidents, I might tend to look on the pessimistic side of things as well. Still, somehow I think there might be alternatives to the Polaroid-in-an-envelope-taped-to-a-body-bag methodology.

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