Polaroid Transfers Fry My Onions!

When professional photographer, Micki Aston, had a brush with mortality 3 years ago, Polaroid transfers helped her through difficult times.

Introduced to a brand new process she felt inspiration return, and her creativity was fired again. Micki says, “They have turned out to be the very expression of what matters – making every moment count, because it can never be repeated.”

Unlike digital pictures or even 35mm film, Polaroid transfers cannot be reproduced.

Each image is literally a small snatch of time that can never be duplicated, like the moment it records.

This aspect of working with transfers is attractive to Micki, and reflects her attitude to life. Her passion and lust for life is irresistible. She makes each moment with you count. Her voice has a smile in it when she talks about her photographs, and she makes you feel you were there when it was taken. To hear Micki explain the process of Polaroid transfers drives you to want to have just one in your home, so that you can have that energy around you.

This image here is called ‘Street Musicians’ and was taken in the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina. “When I saw these musicians, and took their picture, I felt like I was transposed back to another era” Micki said, “the 40′s to be exact.”

“Argentina is ideal for images that are suitable for Polaroid transfers, as you very often find people who look and dress as if they are from bygone days. These musicians looked just like that, and had that 40′s feel, which is so appropriate for a process that produces images with a distressed, vintage feel to them.”

“Polaroid transfers fry my onions,” Micki said, “The search for the right kind of images for this process has taken me to Argentina, Venice and Cuba, places that lend themselves to this vintage look.”

Micki has produced a panel of Polaroid transfers from Buenos Aires, including Tango dancers, Havana and Venice, and all these images have that vintage 40′s feel which she loves so much.

Stephen Rothfeld, the photographer for Frances Mayes’ bestseller Bringing Tuscany Home, says the “…muted colours and soft lines seem to arise not from camera but out of memory itself”.

The instant colour film process involves a negative which contains 3 layers of emulsion sensitive to blue, green, and red light. Underneath each layer is the developer in the complementary colors of yellow, magenta, and cyan. When light strikes an emulsion layer, it blocks the complementary dye below it. For instance, when blue strikes the blue sensitive emulsion layer, it blocks the yellow dye, but allows the magenta and cyan dyes to transfer to the positive, which combine to create blue.

“But here’s the thing, the Polaroid instant film is obsolete, there is no more to be had, it is gone for good.” Like the look it gives to the image, Polaroid film itself has become part of a bygone era. In February 2008, Polaroid announced it would kill production of all instant film. The very last 700 limited edition sets of the original film, along with Polaroid ONE600 cameras, will be sold in Urban Outfitter here and in America.

“So now every image really is precious. Every one of them counts.”

You get the feeling with Micki that is what she does, makes things count. Meeting Micki is like being in one of her photographs, a moment to be captured for a lifetime. She takes time in both hands and owns it, in a way each of her photographs seem to do too.

You certainly leave her company with a new respect and appreciation for Polaroid transfers.

While specialising in landscapes, Micki has an eye for the beautiful and unusual wherever she finds it. You should see her photograph of five Beeater birds in a row from the Okavango Delta, Botswana. A professional photographer living in Windsor, Berkshire, she is a prominent figure in the world of photography and has travelled to many parts of the world. She has been widely published, and is much in demand also as a judge, speaker and lecturer.

Michele (Micki) Aston Alaska