Out With The Old – Start of a New Year
by Mark Hahn
2012 has come to a close. There were difficulties. We’ve made it through them all. We’re stronger for the struggles. The new year looks promising.
This condemned trailer park is in central Tucson, AZ. A woman comes everyday to feed the cats who were left behind. There were people living here until recently. The city kicked them out. It’s hard to guess where they went. Sometimes you have to be forced out of where you feel safe to realize you weren’t safe there after all.
I gave my girlfriend a Polaroid Super-Shooter camera for Christmas. We had wanted to photograph this trailer park together for a while. I dusted off my old Polaroid 360. We went in with packs of Fuji FP-100C and shot up the place.
I had forgotten how frustrating and fun these packfilm cameras can be. The Fuji pack film didn’t run through either of our cameras as smoothly as the old Polacolor films did. In fact, we both managed to rip off the little white pull tabs on our first try. The film got jammed. We had to waste precious shots getting them unjammed. Third try was the charm and we figured out how to pull the film slowly through our cameras using two hands. The procedure turned out to be nothing like the original Polaroid instructions described.
These are the full frame scans of my best shots of the day. Shooting these photos felt like a good way to bring 2012 to a close.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Where’s the hunger?
Hey mark, this is what the men with papers and ungodgiven authority saw when they came to evict. This blue bled bleakness is what they passed judgement on. This is what the well fed, mortgage paid on time, if you don’t talk like me then you must be wrong people see. So why have you left the caps on the camera when you took these photographs? I am not dissing you or throwing stones from a glass house, but I need food, mental food!
Play that pied pipe lens Mark and they will come!
What does you first photo look like from the gravel at the entrance?
How broad is the disparity from the roof of the first trailer?
How focused would the sight be from the dog that lived in the shed and when she looked out at the screen door of the trailer where her food and water came from?
How many times did that old couple sit at that tiny table by the window and share a coffee and donut, waiting for those spankingly starched uniforms to show up and tell them they no longer live there anymore?
In order to share the food you have to eat the food.
Feed us.
This is what I saw while out with my girlfriend on the last day of 2012 — finding beauty in the remains of what was in some ways a brutal year. No universal messages, just having a nice time together and taking some pretty pictures with obsolete ancient cameras.
Have a nice day, Mark.
And a happy New Year!
Lovely images, Mark. Plenty of food for me…
Thanks Sam!
Nice shots.
Just a suggestion – I’ve recently started messing around with a 360 and packfilm. The fuji film is having trouble because it’s got a plastic top on the pack – Polaroid used metal. There’s a large metal clip inside the back cover of the camera that pushes up against the film packs to keep them in place. It pushes against the plastic top and makes it hard to pull out the film, especially the first few frames. If you’ve got an empty (or expired) Polaroid pack, you can swap the metal top on the polaroid one onto a fuji pack. I’ve been doing that, and it’s been great. Just breaking the metal clip out may not work with a 360, since it’s also got the electronic timer in the back as well. Luckily, the camera had an old polaroid pack in it when I got it.
I’ve been having a lot more luck with the 3000B film – the 360 I’m using is having some meter issues (increased electrical resistance from the meter signals the camera that there’s more light than there is). I’ve been gradually covering up the meter with layers of material from an anti-static bag to cut down on the light actually getting in. It’s pretty close.
Thanks Paul! I’ll try that… makes sense. After of lifetime of shooting b&w, I’m really getting hooked on color, and the Fuji color here is simply wonderful IMO! Cost me a pack of film, but I experimented with different densities of 4×5″ negatives and found one that made my meter completely accurate. Surprisingly, the FP-100C has much more latitude than I remember getting from the Polaroid films. Happy shooting!
Love these photos. Deserted places are fascinating.
Awesome shooting Mark. Love this set. There’s something about old, decaying houses that’s definitely appealing. Keep’em coming!
Lovely colors in your photos Mark. The clouds in the opening shot increasin me a sense of desolation. You make me desired to clean my (father’s) 340 and shoot a couple of film, I have somme 3000 B somewhere…
robert
Thanks again all for your comments and compliments!
Robert, you should shoot that 3000 B before it goes bad!
Mark, I’ve never seen your work before today, but you KILLED it with this series. Really great compositions with consistent look and results, something that isn’t very easy with Polaroid cameras. Really well done.
Thank you Jason!!!
poignant post – wondering where did those folks end up…here we talk a lot about the fact that it almost illegal to be homeless — illegal to “be” anywhere.
Thanks for reading and your comments!