Polaroid Film Saved

Magnolia Plantation Gardens, Charleston, SC

Artist Katherine Schneider tries to stay a step ahead of my camera with her canvas but I have the scene she is calling Garden Bridge in Winter as a Polaroid Image transfer done quite a few years ago. Not that that is much to boast about, since the sign on the bridge boasts that it is one of the world's most photographed scenes and has a live web cam.

It's been a while since I played with polaroid film emulsions and image transfers. I recently gave away all the equipment I had, but I was pleased to read this month that Polaroid Film is Saved!

If all goes to plan, the Polaroid factory in Enschede, Amsterdam, will soon be making film again thanks to its new owner, an eccentric Austrian artist and businessman named Florian Kaps. Mr Kaps, 39, has dedicated the past five years to instant photography. He set up Polanoid.net, the biggest Polaroid gallery on the web, and the first ever Polaroid-only art gallery in Vienna, called Polanoir.

Now he plans to save the film. "The project is more than a business plan; it's a fight against the idea that everything has to die when it doesn't create turnover," said Mr Kaps.