A few weeks ago, my friend and fellow Viewfinder Deirdre invited me to watch The Magic of Polaroids: A Creative Journey with Jari Poulin via Santa Fe Workshops. I was captivated for the entire hour and have been thinking about it ever since. I was inspired to try! This past weekend I took my Polaroid 600 downtown with Color Film and a makeshift kit to soup on the go. It was a beautiful sunny day with giant, puffy clouds; perfect for a little Cloud Soup. In a quiet parking lot, I set everything up:
For this experiment, I planned to shoot two packs of Polaroid Color 600 Film. I decided to keep the soup recipe simple: very, very hot water via carafe, sea salt, Dawn dish soap, acidic juice, and various food coloring. I used lemon juice for the first film pack and lime juice for the second. After I finished shooting the first package of film, I used scissors to cut off the top of the Polaroid. I carefully pulled it apart at the top and then placed it into a plastic bag and poured the ingredients in. I swirled it around and then placed it on the ground to soup. On a few Polaroids, I used a razor blade to cut into the back just to see what results might be created. For the second package of film, I followed the same process except I pulled the image farther apart. I wound up with 16 images.
I carefully placed all of the Polaroids into the back of my car and left them there to soup overnight.
The next morning I rinsed the Polaroids in the art sink and left them to dry on an old towel.
I’m absolutely mesmerized by the outcomes! While not all of the images turned out, the majority of them did and I’m really happy. I think it’s important to note that they will change slightly as they dry so if there’s an image that you REALLY love, I’d go ahead and scan it right away. I used the Genius Scan app for simplicity.
The first round of Polaroids souped with a lemon juice base: (I used a razor blade on the first four images)
The second round of Polaroids souped with lime juice as a base: (Razor blade used on the third image)
I’m absolutely mesmerized by the outcomes! You’ll notice in the second set souped with lime juice base that I pulled the film farther apart and that allowed for more of an effect. Next time I’ll make just a few changes: water that is not as hot and a container with lid for batch souping instead of plastic bags.
I love film soup! I enjoy the serendipity of the process and giving up that last bit of control. I have more ideas that I’d like to try in the future, but first I’d like to play with the above images just a little bit more….stay tuned!