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| "Port of Los Angeles, 1969 Land Polaroid" Photography Exhibition |
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| Article by San Pedro Today Magazine, November, 2013. |
Hey San Pedrans!
As you might know, I was the featured artist at the SP International Film festival this year. There will be an exhibition at the Croatian Cultural Center in November 2013.
I have been working in a series of images that compile some of the most famous landmarks of San Pedro. Media: a Land Polaroid from 1969. Style: Black and white old fashion look.
Brief description of my project:
“PORT OF LOS ANGELES” 1969 LAND POLAROID
Ingrid Dietrich-Photographer
I fell in love with the City of San Pedro when I first visited in 2004.
For the past five years, I have dedicated six days of my week capturing the beauty
of the city.
I love the magnificent-old -architecture, but I also enjoy the small town feeling. I can drive downtown and have a coffee, or ride my bike to Point Fermin, and still, people know who I am. I just love that.
In 2013, I started photographing San Pedro, using a 1969 Land Polaroid.
This is a preview of the upcoming exhibition that will take place at the Croatian Cultural Center, November-December, 2013.
As the local featured artist during the San Pedro International Film Festival, 2013, Ingrid had the chance to exhibit fifteen of these images. This time, the exhibition will showcase a compilation of 40 images featuring landmarks of the city of San Pedro such as The Warner Grand Theater, 1931, and the IOWA Battleship, 1940.
The exhibition will also include images of historical significance to the city of San Pedro such as, the closure of Williams’ Bookstore 1909-Aug, 2013, and the 100 anniversary of the Angels Gate Lighthouse, October, 2013.
I wanted to make the city look old, therefore, I decided to use black and white Polaroids.
If I used digital photography to capture the old architecture and the new structures, I would have had to make modifications to make them look from the same time period, and I didn’t want that. I wanted the image to be pure, well planned, unique, somehow raw. Why unique? even though nowadays the images can be scanned and saved as a digital image, there is only ONE Polaroid, no negative. This project really has made pay attention to composition. There are times when I have only one exposure left, so that last image has to be perfect, no space for errors.
I have also tried to avoid to objects that may create time reference such as, people wearing modern clothes, cars, signs with recent dates, etc. Sometimes, I wait for all the people to move away from my shot. Cars have to be completely out of my way. Because of this, I often have to come back several times, until everything is clear.
Challenges:
-Nowadays, is very difficult to find film for this type of cameras.
-Changes in the weather affect the behavior of the emulsion.
-The shutter speed of the camera is locked at a speed of 1/3000 S, which is not good for cloudy days or night.
-The camera is not compatible with tripods
-The most difficult task is composing the image, for these type of cameras do not have interchangeable lenses, therefore, no zoom.
As you can see, every image has to be perfectly planned. It is a challenge, but is also fun.
I will post all the details very soon!
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View inside the camera
View through the 1969 Land Polaroid's viewfinder. The space to compose the image is limited. There are 12 dots on the edges that guide your composition. On the upper left corner, there is a distance indicator that goes from 2 feet to 20 feet. It is a cool way to shoot, but it is also expensive. Most photo stores do not sell this film anymore. The best way to buy it is online.Regardless of all the issues I might have to encounter, I love the old fashion look of the images. |
All this...for one image :)
