Polaroid has always been such an important part of my life. In the late 1950's my father first purchased one for my older brother, and at that time I obviously had no idea of how important it would become in my work. In the early 70's when the SX70 was introduced I was very serious about working with it in order to reach certain creative goals as a professional photographer.
 

Not only was it significant for instant gratification, but its film enabled me to create painterly and moody images which was becoming an important part of my career. This recognized style was also satisfying my initial desire to become a painter.

When my professional career began full-time in 1975 it was a Polaroid 195 that enabled me to have full manual control to test the lighting and exposure. This was common practice amongst professionals, but not very satisfying creatively. So I started experimenting for my own personal creative use with another film that was being introduced by Polaroid: PolaPan! This film was used in a 35mm camera and it gave me amazing results, and wound up to be
a very important part of my fine art work.

 

In my book "Natural Beauty Farber Nudes” PolaPan was used on the cover image as well as 25 images in the book. I also used this film for a number of images in my “American Mood” book. After years of strong involvement with Polaroid and the SX70 lead to a promotional contract with the Polaroid Corporation, but the demise of the original Polaroid was also the end of an important era in my career.

 

Now the SX70 is back, and that’s great for those who weren’t around in those earlier days. I myself have been fortunate enough to be there with the original SX70 film and have accumulated hundreds of images. The quality of the results, along with the memories and stories behind these images, are personally sacred.