Saturday, January 25, 2014

Not-So-Vintage SX-70 Selfies

me_polaroid_2013-03-22

I bought a Polaroid SX-70 camera in 1974. The film was expensive: $7 for each film pack of ten pictures, which calculates to $35 in 2014 dollars! But I was young and single and could afford a film pack once in awhile.

I built my own remote control so I could take "SX-70 selfies" to document my dressing skills. Most of the SX-70 selfies were lost in the great purge of 1983 and I only have a handful of selfies that I took post-purge.

The camera bit the dust in 1985 and so ended my SX-70 photography.

A Christmas gift, a collection of postcards depicting vintage SX-70  photos, sparked my interest in the art of vintage SX-70 photography and I began perusing the Internet for samples. As a result, I discovered that a lot of people were way ahead of me and I found lots of vintage SX-70 photos online.

I wondered if anyone had tried using Photoshop to make current photos look like vintage SX-70 photos. Again, I discovered that a lot of people were ahead of me.

After checking out a number of online Photoshop tutorials, I chose one that  looked promising (Photoshop tutorial: Create the Polaroid effect for images by Ryan Boudreaux) and tried it with a recent photo of me taken in a hotel room. (How kitschy can I get?)

I was happy with the results and decided to share the final product with you (above).

 

femulator-new

 

 

Source: Corbis

Femulators being arrested for “masquerading and indecent exposure”
while attending a 1962 Halloween ball in New York City.

 

femulate-her-new

 

 

Source: ShopBop

Wearing Nicholas (gown), Marc by Marc Jacobs (earrings) and Schutz (pumps).

2 comments:

  1. Oh, the horror of it. Imagine someone “masquerading" on Halloween. What kind of sick, twisted, demented person would consider putting on a costume on Halloween, then going to a BALL, of all places, and terrorizing the guests with such a grotesque and clearly "indecent" exposure as these two freaks of nature evidently did. Oh, one can only imagine their insidious intent. I hope everyone at the ball averted their eyes until the long arm of the law could snatch these two up and send them to the deepest depths of the finest NYC jail.

    Boy, did they ever have their law enforcement priorities right back in those days. I trust this brave police officer received a commendation for his swift action.

    Feeling safe now,
    Rhonda

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  2. Stana:

    Your femulator's simulator's SX-70 emulator image is spot on. When I first saw it and before reading the entire story, I thought you hadn't aged a bit in 40 years.

    What a great technique, right down to the crinkles in the part that held the developer. Well done, girl.

    Best,
    Rhonda

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