Pentimento: definitions and relevance (part 2).

Also see: Pentimento: definitions and relevance (part 1).

It's funny. I started writing my thesis in 2005/6. My M(res) was awarded at the end of 2008. As will become apparent in the text below, I theorised about the the use of integral Polaroid film under the shadow of a possible and imminent demise.

Integral Polaroid was an anachronism holding on by the tips of its fingers in the digital, the post-photographic age.

All of us who use the film were indulging in little more than a nostalgia act in the present.

Integral Polaroid film was to be the vanishing mediator.

For an insightful post on nostalgia and decay see: http://colinpantall.blogspot.com/2009/10/nostalgia-and-decay.html.

For a recent article on medium specificity and nostalgia see the recent article Contemporary Art Photographers Mess With the Medium by Martha Schwendener (http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-10-13/art/contemporary-art-photographers-mess-with-the-medium/. 13/10/2009.)

And now, as I put the this part on line (and only an introductory part of the thesis as a whole), it is announced that the the film will be available once more....

Pentimento: definitions and relevance (part 2).

Additionally, ‘pentimento’ is also employed metaphorically. In much the same way that the surface of a painting can become transparent with age and reveal an original intention - a prior image beneath the known and recognised - this paper is an attempt to make visible the integral Polaroid within the more general, and vast, field of photographic discourse. Further, to not only recognise it as a distinct means of photographic production, but to make visible its singularity, and interconnected with its singularity, possessing the status of object. In this, I seek to propose the use of the integral Polaroid as a sculptural material in its own right – to uncover its essential physical presence.

Lillian Hellman, in her autobiographical novel Pentimento: A Book of Portraits (1976) concludes her own definition stating: ‘Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again.’ This is pertinent in three main respects: while the integral Polaroid has been replaced, at least technologically (though, of course, not physically), by the digital image, it still has important things to say. It is like a buried treasure or a hidden artefact:

It is noticeable that much of the most interesting discussion of images now concerns not digital futures, but, actually, what seemed until recently to be antique and forgotten media (the panorama, the camera obscura, the stereoscope): from our post-photographic vantage point these have suddenly acquired new meanings…’ (Robins 1996, p.165)

While Robins does not mention the Polaroid explicitly, its inclusion within the list that he provides – which is, of course, not inclusive – could easily be accommodated. For it is, to use the terminology employed by Robins, a peculiarly analogue photographic process in a ‘post-photographic’ area; or, as Hellman would say, it is a means of ‘seeing and then seeing again.’

Secondly, such a book as Pentimento: A Book of Portraits (1976) is always at least an exercise in nostalgia. Originally a medical term coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer to describe ‘the pain a sick person feels because he wishes to return to his native land, and fears never to see it again’ (Wikipedia, 2007) – a concern of the Tarkovsky film of the same name (1983) - and now more generally referring to ‘a yearning for the past’ (Chambers 1996), nostalgia’s relevance can also be articulated in a different manner.

In regards to the integral Polaroid it could be stated that, by its use, one is indulging in a nostalgic act with an eye to the future – a time when the medium is no longer available (not to be confused with notions of postalgia which seeks to describe a yearning for a predicted future that never materialised). As is stated in the introduction to the book SX70.com.br (Barros, 2003, n.p.):

Today, Polaroid is a kind of modern relic from the 20th Century.

This is not a far-fetched supposition: the Eastman Kodak Company announced it would cease producing black and white photographic paper in 2005; in 2006 Nikon announced that it would cease manufacturing most of its 35mm camera bodies and components; and the Polaroid Corporation has already ceased production of its most well known integral Polaroid film, SX-70 (1). Such use is similar to the continuing of a sexual relationship before an explicit acknowledgement that the relationship is over, rather than the memory of such a relationship. It is like, as Virilio discusses in conversation with Lotringer on attending The World of Bodies’ exhibition (Lotringer, Virilio, 2005, p.51): ‘It was much less a rediscovery of the body than a sort of farewell to any permanence it once used to have…’. Indeed, it is this purposeful, ever decreasing permanence that lies behind Virilio’s criticisms of Stelarc and Orlan (2005, 2003). In relation to the photographic image we now have, ‘through electronics, the computers, the delirium of synthetic images’ (2005, p.58).

Thirdly, while ostensibly a biography, there is much debate regarding what is factual and what is fictional within the work, and the degree to which such inferences interfere with the narrative. This rub testifies, albeit obliquely, to the relevance of the fictional in such an undertaking as this very paper, an issue which will be addressed shortly.

(1).  Polaroid’s press release concerning the end of SX-70 production states:

Please be advised that Polaroid will be discontinuing the manufacture of its SX-70 / Time-Zero film within the first 3 months of 2006 due to the phasing out of components used in the production of this film. // We realise that this is disappointing news for our loyal SX-70 users and we would like to underline that, although the circumstances made it inevitable, it was not an easy decision. // We are very sorry for the inconvenience.’ (2005).

Bibliography.

Hellman, Lillian (1976). Pentimento: A Book of Portraits. Quartet Books, LTD. London.

Lotringer, Sylverre. Virilio, Paul (2005). The Accident of art. Semiotext(e). New York.

nostalgia (definition). Wikipedia, 2007.

nostalgia (definition). Chambers 1996. Located online at: http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main [accessed: 04/09/07].

Robins (1996) - I can't seem to find my reference for this. I think the passage was quoted in another book. If you have a reference on this please do leave a comment.

SX70 / TIME ZERO FILM IMPORTANT NOTICE (2005). Located online at: http://www.polaroid.com/sx70/en/index.html [Accessed: 03/06/07].

SX70.com.br (2003). This is the trouble with working from an incomplete text /bibliography. Most of my work and books are in the UK. While I have  book, which is excellent (I exhibited the group's work in the UK as part of the Polarama exhibition, I do not have the full reference here! For more on the groups see: http://sx70.com.br/.

Tarkovsky (Director). Nostalgia (1983). DVD film (2003). Artificial Eye.

Virilio, Paul (2005). Oops!

Thirdly, while ostensibly a biography, there is much debate regarding what is factual and what is fictional within the work, and the degree to which such inferences interfere with the narrative. This rub testifies, albeit obliquely, to the relevance of the fictional in such an undertaking as this very paper, an issue which will be addressed shortly