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The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

TCF Ep. 473 - Willem Baptist

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Arts, Visual Arts

4.8768 Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Willem Baptist is a Dutch filmmaker and documentary-director whose latest film is Instant Dreams. Instant Dreams is a feature documentary about the fascination and love for Polaroids. When Polaroid announced the end of instant film in 2008, the last still working factory was bought by a small group of enthusiasts. Among them is the retired scientist Stephen Herchen who previously collaborated with the inventor of Polaroid and is still trying to unravel the secret of the lost chemical formula. Photographer Links: Willem Baptist Instant Dreams Website Jean Luc Godard's Contempt Alexandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker Listener Intro: Eric Woods Education Resources: Tokyo: Explorations in the Metropolis with Ibarionex Perello & George Nobechi Momenta Photographic Workshops Ibarionex + Olaf in Vancouver, Canada Candid Frame Resources The Candid Frame Newsletter The Candid Frame Alexa Skill Lessons from the Street eBook by Ibarionex Making Photographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow The Candid Frame Flickr Pool The Candid Frame YouTube Channel Download the free Candid Frame app for your favorite smart device. Click here to download for iOS. Click here to download for Android Support the work we do at The Candid Frame with contributing to our Patreon effort. You can do this by visiting patreon.com/thecandidframe or visiting the website and clicking on the Patreon button. You can also provide a one-time donation via PayPal. You can follow Ibarionex on Instagram and Twitter.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Woodes from Memmond, North Carolina, and you are listening to The Candid Frank.

0:14.3

When I think about what made Polaroid so magical, I don't believe it was just the speed by which I saw an image.

0:23.6

We have much quicker results with a digital camera, and I can't say that I experience the same

0:29.3

feelings of anticipation, glee, and surprise as when I used my family's SX-70 camera.

0:38.4

William Baptiste's film Instant Dreams

0:41.0

explores the emotions and the spirit

0:44.1

that made the experience of using Polaroid film

0:47.2

such a unique and creative one.

0:50.3

He does so by challenging our expectations

0:52.8

of a traditional documentary and infuses his film with visual flourishes more often associated with fictional films and television.

1:03.0

He wants us to think of Polaroid, not just as a product, but to remember and value it for the experience it provided.

1:12.6

Maybe you remember like the days of writing to your pen pals, you know, or to a loved one

1:19.2

or vacation love.

1:21.6

Just writing, you have to experience of writing the letter, the anticipation of getting a letter, has he read it, has he read it,

1:29.6

what does he can he say, and then reading the text, waiting by the mailbox or whatever.

1:35.6

So there's a whole set of experiences that goes into making a Polaroid photo.

1:41.9

The reason why Polaroid in films of its type continue to fascinate both young and old

1:47.9

has nothing to do with how flawless the images are.

1:52.4

It's not that Polaroids are perfect in any technical way.

1:56.2

To the contrary, it's their perfect imperfection that help make those images so unique and special.

2:03.6

We all experience life, you all know the imperfections of our own lives.

2:07.6

You can find that in those images.

...

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