"Remember that time before iPhones and digital cameras, when Polaroid was this magical thing?" asks photographer Jeff Enlow in a video for his ongoing Kickstarter campaign, "Parallelograms."
It might seem like eons ago, but there was a time when instant film reigned supreme in the world of photography, bringing a sense of physical and unpredictable wonder to image creation. Enlow has reason to wax nostalgic about the days of yore, particularly when the medium of one-of-a-kind imagery is so crucial to his work.
"Parallelograms" is a nude portraiture project that exists in a space between photography and painting, using multiple exposures to create dizzying duplicates in one frame. Capturing a delicate beauty and ethereal sense of the body's vulnerability, the images are irreproducible, revealing a momentary form or "gestalten" that is the result of pure circumstance caught on film.
"My project, 'Parallelograms,' came out of a frustration with the limitations of digital photography. I wanted to create something that was physical and unique. I wanted something that would capture the nude body in the way that a painting or sculpture does."
In the past, Enlow has worked with the discontinued 4x5 Fuji FB45 instant film to produce his dancing nudes. However, his Kickstarter project aims to take "Parallelograms" to a larger medium, hoping to raise money for a portfolio shot on what he claims is the rarest of all films -- the 20x24 Polaroid. It's an expensive decision, given that the photos will cost approximately $500 per image, but it would elevate his works from the size of large notecard to a substantial canvas.
"The size and detail of the 20x24 Polaroid is unmatched and it is the only format to truly give justice to these images."
Enlow is offering books, posters, postcards, archival C-prints and commissioned photo shoots to Kickstarters willing to help raise $10,000 to complete his project. But hurry, time is running out. The campaign ends Saturday, November 2, at midnight.
