Shake It Like a Digital Camera

Ah, the Polaroid. A man after my own heart.

About ten years ago, I wanted to create a photo exhibit about documentary using my Polaroid, how we are so used to instantaneous events these days that we attempt to document and analyze them as they are occuring, thereby obscuring the benefit of hindsight, whether it is self-consciously defining ourselves Gen-Xers or, these days, insta-polling after every goddamn thing that happens in the political arena. From reality television to blogging, our self awareness interferes with the spontaneity and truthfulness of our lives. For instance, would the kids in the Real World act differently if the camera wasn't on them?

Anyway, now it's ten years later and digital cameras have rendered my Polaroid documentary obsolete. But I know there's irony in there somewhere.