*new to me*

good morning & happy monday friends! today is a sunny {but cold} day, and husband is traveling in asia.  when he travels i usually put together a “what i want to accomplish while husband is traveling for work project list” and it’s not my typical to-do’s.  this time i have high hopes to get a LOT done for the upcoming holidays, a few projects around the house, and some extra workouts, plus the normal stuff.  what are you doing today?  

before i dive in to my list, i wanted to share this with you… in the past few months i have been touring art institutes, and other universities in the area with good art programs — hoping to re-enroll for art school this next fall. while doing so, i discovered the most amazing thing that was *new to me*.

are you a fan of polaroid pictures? yes? no? i have a polaroid fetish! so, listen…

over thirty years ago, polaroid’s founder edwin land created seven 235-pound polaroid cameras that use polaroid film that measures 20″ x 24″, a beast in the world of large format photography!!! only six of the cameras exist today, two of them are on display at Harvard and MIT, three are in use commercially. and! the only one not in use commercially is at MASSART!!! get this, if you are a student at massart you can take a photography class that includes using the 235-pound polaroid camera!!! this is sooo tempting!

{camera in use}

according to Forbes, buying prints created with this camera cost $3,500 a piece, while renting the thing for a day costs $1,750 and $200 for each shot. {and i complain about my instant camera film costing fifty cents – one dollar/photo?!?}

as polaroid began its slow end of existence in the 2000s, polaroid research photographer john reuter met several times with a man named florian kaps to discuss how they would attempt to save polaroid’s instant film. reuter wished to continue the 20×24 line, while kaps was interested in saving everything else. in 2008, reuter and a group of investors created 20×24 holdings llc. and purchased two of the 20×24 cameras and the remaining supply of 20×24 film. kaps created the impossible project and set to work reviving the other polaroid lines.

20×24 film now lives on through reuter’s 20×24 Studio, located in tribeca, NY. new 20×24 film can be ordered from the studio for these cameras. {studio picture above and below.}

for any of you photography/polaroid lovers out there – here is a youtube video about the camera in use:

the photographer is Elsa Dorfman, a cambridge, massachusetts-based portrait photographer known for her work with this camera.

what do you think??? i’m hoping to visit this studio the next time we are in nyc, and to find the cameras in boston! it would be so cool to have our family pictures next year taken with this ginormous polaroid camera!

{images via}