1965 Polaroid "Swinger" Camera

This little commercial is too catchy and nostalgic not to post. It stars Ali MacGraw and the Polaroid Swinger Camera.

Polaroid announced on February 8, 2008 that they're ceasing production of instant film. Although there's something captivating about the jagged and painterly edges of a photograph taken with Polaroid film (with those those terribly intriguing yet telltale circles), I'm only slightly sad about this. I remember playing with an old black polaroid camera when I was young. Ah, childhood...Wish you could've been here just this second as I flipped through the pages of my mental album, viewing all the polaroids of the family from ages ago. ...Baby pictures... Mom and all the girls in the family playing dress-up, Mom and Dad before I was born...

And still recently Jon and I were in a thrift store before Christmas rummaging through ancient electronics tossed on a metal shelf when we found an old Polaroid Camera with film still in it. Granted, the film was light leaked but for some inexplicable reason I just had to have it. The chemicals had long since dried, leaving random bubbly designs on the front and back of each Polaroid. We eventually left after deciding there was nothing worth buying but I left that thrift store a happy girl with three little mysterious Polaroids tucked under my arm.

Well, goodbye Polaroid. There are ways to recreate things digitally, but I imagine it'd be hard to recreate something as tactile as the real thing.

And so the digital age moves on.