Going through one of my old boxes of memorabilia the other day, my kids found my old Polaroid camera and with it was an envelope full of old pictures from my childhood. So we sat together and I told them about this wonderful camera: the Polaroid. How it used a white rectangular film that you pulled out and then had to wait before peeling apart and how thrilling it was to actually see the picture develop before your eyes.
In my parents’ house we had an oval coffee table with a protective glass top raised slightly on four black rubber circles. The space underneath the glass was used to insert family photos and this is where we kept the “best” Polaroids. I would spend hours looking at these pictures of babies, family vacations, weddings and graduations. When I started studying art I started experimenting with angles and exposure times to manipulate the final photograph and these were the Polaroids in the envelope they found.
With digital photography and the fact that Polaroid film was scarce to find, I stopped using my camera. Not everything “retro” is necessarily something I miss but one thing that used to fascinate me and I’m sorry that is now out of style is the Polaroid camera.
That’s why I love these Polaroid coasters created by London-based animator, photographer and graphic designer Parul Arora. She uses original photography shot with analog cameras then digitally transfers them to an on-glaze tile and fires them. The result is a coaster that looks like a Polaroid original and the images on them have the same quality as my old family photos.
Looking at these pictures of people frozen in time in places I don’t always recognize is like peeking through the looking glass.
I love having these coasters that I scatter on my own coffee table and anytime I look at them my imagination runs wild making up stories about each picture. The ceramic coasters are 10 X 10 cm, 100% waterproof and backed with self adhesive vinyl pads.
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