MOTHER'S POLAROID CAMERA

My grandfather, Charlie Portfors (on left), with his brother, Andrew Portfors, c. 1960

Some weeks back, we watched Mr. Polaroid, an episode of American Experience on PBS, which reminded me of the polaroid camera Mother bought about 1960.

My dad was our family photographer, and his pictures were slides, which meant we only saw them through a small viewer or when projected onto a screen. I loved watching a “slide show,” but those happened infrequently. You know, back in the day, it was a subject of jokes that evening visitors were forced to watch a boring slide show. Very few slides became prints, and now if slides are of questionable historical value, just imagine how much pictorial history we'll lose with the digital age.  

Anyway, Mother was interested in having some control of photo ops, and that polaroid camera at the jewelry store intrigued her. I used to have a photo of Mother and Daddy as the store owner demonstrated that camera.

Mother took the above photo of her father, Charlie Portfors, and his brother Andrew with her new camera. Uncle Andy, 11 years younger than Grandpa, lived in Canada and visited every other year or so. The first picture Mother took didn’t turn out, so she took another – the one that you see here. She then sang the praises of that camera which allowed her to immediately take advantage of the moment with a better photo. Today, with our digital cameras, we think nothing of taking several photos of the same subject, but in that era, picture-taking constituted an expense, even an extravagance.

Developing a picture taken with that camera was a process. As I recall, after taking the picture, you pulled it out of the camera, and then you had to wait 60 seconds before removing a protective paper. Once you had your photo in hand, it seemed like magic, but you weren’t finished yet. You had to apply a smelly chemical and wait for that to dry. Now your photo was finished, and if you wished, you could affix it to the cardboard backing provided in the kit.

But – before long, that camera lapsed into obsolescence. The camera still worked just fine but the film was discontinued. It was disappointing. Was the camera already obsolete when she bought it? Probably. Did the seller know and just not tell her? Maybe. Today, we are savvy about changing technology, but in the “old days,” we learned the hard way.

My folks were conservative when it came to taking pictures, and the polaroid camera didn’t change their philosophy. Mother didn’t take many photos, and many of them didn’t age well. But I’m pleased that the one of my grandfather and his brother has withstood the years.

The camera was still in the cupboard when we moved Mother from the house in 1991. I threw it away. KW