Polaroid Preservation

Two weeks ago I wrote about how Polaroid stopped manufacturing film. In the Comments section to that article, Nancy Owen asked, “Over the years, I’ve taken a lot of Polaroid pictures. Many of them are not holding up. The edges of the paper on the back are coming unglued. What can I do to preserve my photographs?” Ahh, Nancy, Polaroid pictures are a bit troublesome. If you’ve taken these instant pictures and haven’t looked at them in a while, it’s time to take a peek. These images have a tendency to fade, crack and become unglued. The best solution is to scan them, then fix the damage using photo editing software. Several people wrote to me privately saying how much they liked using their Polaroid cameras. According to an article in Sunday’s Boston Globe, Fuji still makes instant film. You can see a selection of their products on the Fuji Web site. And yes, it works in Polaroid cameras!