The polaroid image as photo-object

Buse, P 2010, 'The polaroid image as photo-object' , Journal of Visual Culture, 9 (2) , pp. 189-208.

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Abstract

This article is part of a larger project on the cultural history of Polaroid photography and draws on research done at the Polaroid Corporate archive at Harvard and at the Polaroid company itself. It identifies two cultural practices engendered by Polaroid photography, which, at the point of its extinction, has briefly flared into visibility again. It argues that these practices are mistaken as novel but are in fact rediscoveries of practices that stretch back as many as five decades. The first section identifies Polaroid image-making as a photographic equivalent of what Tom Gunning calls the ‘cinema of attractions’. That is, the emphasis in its use is on the display of photographic technologies rather than the resultant image. Equally, the common practice, in both fine art and vernacular circles, of making composite pictures with Polaroid prints, draws attention from image content and redirects it to the photo as object.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Media, Digital Technology and the Creative Economy Memory, Text and Place
Schools:	Schools > School of Arts & Media > Arts, Media and Communication Research Centre
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Visual Culture
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	1470-4129
Depositing User:	P Buse
Date Deposited:	28 Oct 2011 14:04
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2022 16:10
URI:	http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/18772

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