Are you of the generation that remembers the flash of the Polaroid camera as a part of almost any momentous occasion? For many, those cheery photos are the only recorded memory of family events. The flash was over in, well, a flash, while the pictures oozed out a slower joy culminating in a shiny finished photograph in your hand. Seemed like the end-all of possibilities in the area of instant gratification. Seemed.
The Polaroid has been replaced by swifter methods. “Instant” is a whole new world, and we no longer have to count, shake it, or peel the sheets apart to find the gift of that image glimmering up at us. Those days may be gone but not the echo of that click and the small percolating whir that defined a Polaroid diligently at work.
The excitement of those long-ago photos remains thanks to Megan Jones, who is, among (many) other things, the co-producer of Shake It-a Modern Polaroid Love Story, a one-hour radio documentary. To hear her talk about the place Polaroid holds in our collective history is a totally delightful walk down memory lane with a few twists that have something to teach about memories recycled and kept vibrant. History, i.e., keeping memories alive that we may learn something from them, is a complicated business and in very good hands with Megan Jones and those who join her in this world of preserving what Polaroid meant then and now.
