Experiments with Expired Polaroid 600

A few weeks ago, my cousin Shahla and I visited an antique store on a whim and discovered that they had several packs of Polaroid 600 film. We were so excited that we each purchased a 10-pack with the hopes of digging out our old Polaroid OneStep Express cameras that we received from our grandma when we were in middle school. I wanted to save the pack of film for my impending road trip/ epic move from Los Angeles to Seattle (there will be more about this trip very soon--- there were so many beautiful things to photograph!).

My package of film expired in 2007, but there was no way of knowing where it had been for the last 7 years, and I'm assuming it wasn't stored in the most appropriate places. It didn't matter, though--- I would gladly pay $22 to support our local economy and for a quick chance to use that camera again.

Long story short, I packed the camera in our tiny car, but it was accidentally buried under the millions of other things in there and I forgot that I had planned on using it on our trip. I pried it out of the packed car the morning we were in Carmel, CA, and I was so excited to be able to finally use it! Unfortunately, it didn't work out all that well. I took a few shots and nothing developed. I'm pretty sure the chemical packets in each sheet had dried over time and there was just no way to create an image anymore. A few of the sheets developed a bit more than others, but overall, I was left with little tan squares.

When I got home, I took the stack of photos out of my purse and put them on my desk and realized I sort of liked the strange patterns and colors that had appeared on the film. I only have five photos to share, as the remainder of the film is stuck inside the camera until I can do a little camera surgery.