Before digital photography flooded the market, I was obsessed with Polaroid films. I used them pretty much every day for one thing or another. I achieved much of my conceptual work with the Polaroid emulsion lift process and I always had a fresh batch of exposed type 55 negatives hanging to dry my shower. My favorite Polaroid process by far was SX70 Polaroid manipulation. These images are just a sampling of the work I created for a decade using this process before Polaroid went under.

The SX70 film is one of their earlier formulations. The colors are softer and the dye layers remain malleable for several days before hardening.

Once the photograph has been taken and the image has developed, the dye layers can be manipulated by pressing a stylus directly into the surface of the Polaroid, creating lines, patterns, and dots. Once the film has hardened, the marks are permanent.  

The resulting Polaroids look like miniature paintings with a sculptural relief quality in the grooves of the marks.  

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Note: There is a company in Europe that is manufacturing instant films for Polaroid cameras. These films are not able to be manipulated like Polaroid SX70 film. 

Believe me, I've tried. 

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