Polascenes

A way to present Polaroids on a different and more involving fashion, or a CameraClara tradition.

Polascene of a woman wearing a Burqa crossing a street in SoHo (Manhattan), taken in 2026 by me. Placed close to vynil records and Robert Capa's "THE AMERICANS” book, published in 1958. I think this contrast well represents how the culture and habits changed in the USA. The Polaroid frame is black, as opposed to the usual white.

Polaroids are the ultimate analog experience, in the sense that one holds a unique moment captured and developed in real time, right in your hands. I could spend this entire post talking about Polaroids, instead, I'll talk about the way to present it.

I took the Polaroid of this flag and decided placing close to my books that talk about the evolution of the city of New York, meaning things evolve and communities that didn't have voice, now do have.

Sharing Polaroids is a struggle, especially during Internet times. A Polaroid is so unique that it resists being passed around, and at some point you inevitably need to take a photo of the photo.

That's when I thought: If I’m taking a photo of the photo, I’d rather make something artistic out of it.

Whis is my wife Maysa. She loves music and not by coincidence she is wearing a shirt of Tower Records, a huge vynil and music store in Tokyo. What most people don't know is that she holds a Master's Degree in Acoustics Engineering, and in the books part that compose the Polascene, there are Psychoacoustics books and biografies of people like Antonio Carlos Jobim, and books that dive deep in the world of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian Popular Music).

I thought about taking a new image that contains the Polaroid and composes with the scene around it. The connection is up to the viewer, and the elements in the frame are only a suggestion to help the storytelling along.

I tried this once and got fascinated by the process. Art is so rich that when you add two of its layers together, the interpretations multiply into a multiverse of thoughts. And obviously, Photography is art.

In “In Plato’s Cave,” the first essay of On Photography, Sontag circles around reproducibility. She argues with herself (sometimes on a contradictory fashion over the multiple scattered essays) about whether photography is art.

One point stays clear, though. Unlike paintings, photographs can be reproduced endlessly.

Can they? What about a Polaroid?

I think photographing Polaroids this way turns them into a richer medium, one that transcends the physical world, that’s why I present my Polaroid shots to you as something I call a “Polascene”, which is the sum of two words: Polaroid + Scene. It's a term I created.

Here's my idea for you, ! Why don't you create some Polascenes and post in the comments? It doesn't need to have the bookshelf theme like I did. It can be a Polaroid showing gas prices laying close to updated prices, o a Polaroid of a casino close to green table cloth and poker chips. The goal is to compose it up and have fun!

In fact, the composition might or might not make sense, leaving up to the viewer's interpretation on why you chose these objects to compose the Polascene.

Have you imagined this way of storytelling turning into a book (or at least a zine) one day?

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