Portrait of Naeem Douglas at PolaCon NYC 2024. I had the pleasure of meeting and making several instant portraits of him at last year’s event. He is known by many as the “đź‘‘king of group portraits,” “mogul of group portraiture,” GM of @soulsinfocus, and a creative at MOMA.
Naeem greeted me at PolaCon this year with a smile; it was good to see him again. I renewed my promise to send him last year’s portrait scans (finally) and he promised to pose for a fresh portrait before the end of the day. He kept his promise and posed for me, and I am glad to report that I kept my promise as well, a few days after PolaCon… 🙂
When shooting Naeem on this expired film against a white background, you can see a color-shift due to the aging chemistry. Polaroid’s support site says the dark bluish stripe on the left 1/3 of the image is most likely due to age-related chemical pod inconsistencies, or — if it was stored properly — a manufacturing defect. We’ll never know which it was…
Details: polaroid.com/Why-do-my-photos-have-vertical-stripes
Subject:Â Naeem Douglas / @naeemdouglas_
Location:Â Worthless Studios, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Camera: Polaroid SLR 680SE (vintage)
Film:Â Polaroid 600 Color (New, expired 2022)
Photographer:Â Russ Murray
Naeem in action:
Couple of shots I made on iPhone while Naeem was directing Roman (@mystic_rage) at PolaCon. When he paused to load fresh film in his beloved Rollei SL66 medium-format, roll-film camera, I took a quick Polaroid portrait of Roman, which you can see here.
The second PolaCon NYC 2024 event, sponsored by Polaroid, was held from May 17th — 19th, primarily at Worthless Studios in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. I went on Saturday the 18th and had a great time learning, playing with gear, meeting old friends, making new ones, and shooting a bunch of instant photos!
See you tomorrow…
russ murray 
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