The Impossible Project Workshop

In April we had a bit of a more relaxed day at College as we were going to be doing the “Impossible Project" workshop.  I will go into a bit about "Impossible" and then summarise our workshop.  

The company Impossible took over the production of Polaroid film after production of the film ceased.

In 2008, Impossible purchased the Polaroid™ factory in Enschede, The Netherlands. The components used by Polaroid™ were no longer usable, and the formula had to be re-invented.

A few years after the very first pack of film produced by Impossible, the formula has been refined to provide a rich color palette and a fast development time. 

The current generation of Black & White Impossible film has a development time of approximately 10 minutes, the Color ones of approximately 40 minutes, but they were working on a faster emergence and development film. 

I was lucky enough to have been given an old Polaroid by my mom and dad, and this was what I would use for the Impossible Project today.  I purchased a black and white film from the college shop.  The films come in packs of 8 unlike the old Polaroid, which came in packs of 10.  (You need to remember this when using your camera, as the counter on the camera is configured for packs of 10 films.)

Emma first showed us how she approached the Impossible Project.  Emma used a scalpel to remove all of the frame/border from the Polaroid.  (I had done a bit of research online, watching YouTube videos about how to do Polaroid lifts.)  We then went through the process of then cleaning the white emulsion off the Polaroid, and what we were left with looked quite “snotty”.  We then had to manipulate the film and apply it first to our paper, and then to our tile.

My Polaroid films didn’t seem to develop properly, and were quite faint.  I did go back outside to take a couple more films, but without much improvement.  One film that was faint but vaguely recognizable was the one I decided to use.  I decided not to use a scalpel, and after watching YouTube I decided to use scissors to remove the frame and proceed to get the lift onto the paper.  Although the image is faint, it has an aged quality and looks vaguely sepia in tone.  I did try a second Polaroid, which was quite old, and there was some problem removing the white emulsion from it.  I did get as much off as I could and then put the lift onto some more paper.

The black and white film did seem more fragile than the colour film.

This was quite a fun project, and it is something that I want to try again at home.  I have purchase a Universal Instant Lab.  With this I can then use my smartphone images and print them out onto Impossible film.  I have purchased some Impossible film, but these have fancy borders, I will purchase some white border film and keep the fancy borders for other use, it would be a shame to have to throw away the border.

So something that is "impossible" can still be fun.  You can download their App for your smartphone, and you can also look at their website where you can get lots of inspiration.  Beware though as you may be tempted into purchasing from there, it can be quite addictive!

I will be adding some images from my workshop soon, so keep an eye out for these.