Hi Frank, thank you for accepting doing this interview for Polaroid of The Day Magazine. It’s a great pleasure to have you featured in our long gallery of instant photography artists!
Hi Polaroid of the Day Magazine, thank you for having me. I feel truly honoured and excited to be part of this community! I believe this might be my first interview or the first that matters.
How would you describe yourself in two sentences? What would you like people to know about you and about your work with instant photography?
I like to consider myself creative and curious. Can’t really talk much about my work, I’m quite new to this field (of instant photography) and I’m still figuring things out. I love this part of the process, the whole trial and error.
How did you get involve with the Polaroid Cameras and when did you decide to buy one?
It was by mistake. A close friend, disclosed her gift for my birthday. A Polaroid Express 600 camera, so I bought 3 packs of instant film Impossible Project 600 b&w. Something happened, and her gift never arrived…
Now I had 3 packs of instant film, so I bought a camera, then got scammed, bought a second one, a Polaroid Land Camera Supercolour AutoFocus 3500 SX-70 Film with autofocus.
I modified it, added a tripod mount, made a DIY ND filter for that 600 film, went out and started taking pictures of strangers (part of my very first project on Polaroid, “Photography as a gift”)
What can you tell us about the chemical experiments you’re using for your instants? How impressed are you by the result?
I was/ still am fascinated about the chemical reaction and the whole instant part of it. From my understanding, there’s a series of intricate chemical process that takes place in order to develop and then stabilize the image.
As for the results, the new Polaroid Originals is already better than the older versions of Impossible film.
Most of my experiments on instant film, are done on shots rendered as “useless” or on mistakes. I believe Polaroid photography always had this side that encourages people to experiment with their pictures.
How do you see the future of your career as a Polaroid photographer and when can our followers have the chance to go to an exposition made by you?
I’m not sure there’s a “career” in Polaroid photography… I love this medium, it has so much to offer but I feel that instant photography is more like a phase/ period then anything. It’s hard to photograph exclusively on instant film, when every mistake costs you, literally. At the moment I can afford buying a pack of film a week. On the long run, it might be better to get a digital camera… As for exhibitions, I don’t have anything planned, but people can see some of my work on my Instagram page @frank.neze
If you had the last pack of Polaroid film and the last Polaroid camera in the world, how would you use it? Where? And what would you photograph? No pressure. Just go with the flow.
This is a tough one! This sounds a lot like “the last roll of Kodachrome”!
I think I would end it the same way I started, taking pictures of strangers and then giving the Polaroids back to them, and instead of using my SX-70 SLR, I would go back to the “blind” focus and the measuring tape L.
That always sparked a reaction from people.