Throwback: Polaroids #1

Happy Monday!

I originally had a very different post lined up for this week, but since I won a competition on PurplePort a few days ago, it only seemed right that I did a post related to it to celebrate. The theme of the competition was 'Polaroid(ish)' so I have decided to do a polaroid post... but not just a polaroid post. Specifically, a post relating to the shot that won the competition. If you'd like to see the competition and the other entries, then you can click here, but the image that won the competition was this one:

In this image, you can see me and the truly wonderful Stacie Mai. We both loved this shot. I think it would make a perfect album cover for a rock band.

There's a sort of magic in polaroids (which is why I ended up getting my own retro polaroid camera, that I recently upgraded to a more modern one). You only get 8 shots in a pack of film and it's expensive, so it makes you think a lot more carefully about what you want to capture. Also, due to the history of polaroids, they kind of have to be borderline tacky for them to work.

The photographer, Andy Harding is excellent and I used to work with him quite often. Every shoot we did, we included some polaroids. Sometimes we shot some classy art nude, and sometimes shot polaroids as a parody of what they once were.

I plan to do a series of polaroid blog posts, but this first one as I said, is specifically the polaroids from this trip. These were all taken in Bulgaria in 2018 and believe it or not, I wasn't originally supposed to go on that trip, but one of the models dropped out last minute. I filled in with only a few day's notice. I hadn't met Stacie before this trip but we instantly clicked and became friends. The entire trip was amazing, but the main thing I remember about it was this polaroid shoot.

Unfortunately, Stacie doesn't model much any more and Andy doesn't shoot much at the minute, but I'll include links here so you can see more of their work. They're two people that I am so grateful to have had the chance to work with as they're both extremely talented at what they do, and both genuinely wonderful people.

Stacie Mai can be found on: Purpleport and Instagram.

And Andy Harding can be found on: Purpleport and Instagram.

Solo Polaroids: Black and White Art Nude

The best polaroids from this trip were the ones that were of me and Stacie, and we will get to those shortly. But first, here are a few of me by myself that were captured on black and white film:

The first image was a location art nude on some ruins we trekked to get to, and the second was taken at the house we stayed at for the second half of the trip.

Solo Polaroids: Shower

When we moved on to the second place, the first thing we all wanted to do was shoot in it. It was a large, old house and once we had all found our rooms (more on this shortly) and settled in, we did some shots around the house. One of the first ideas me and Andy had was for a polaroid shoot in the shower (remember me mentioning the tacky nature of polaroids) and here are the shots we got:

When Andy shoots a pack of polaroid film, he lets the model do a random selfie at the end. Obviously, being in the shower with the water running, holding a camera that belonged to someone else, I sort of panicked. That last image was my rushed selfie attempt as I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible to minimise the chances of me dropping the camera or getting it wet... that shot still makes me laugh and I love how it came out. You have to be silly sometimes, but more so when messing around with polaroids.

Duo: Arty

And now introducing the wonderful Stacie Mai. Here are a couple of the more arty shots before we descend into chaos. First off, a location shot with Stacie in latex and me nude, then an implied shot of us both at the house (in the same spot as the solo image above).

And now onto the madness, but first let me explain the Playboy room.

The Playboy Room

For a bit of context, on this trip there were seven of us (that's five photographers including the guy who organised the trip, with myself and Stacie as the models). When we got to the house, we all wandered around to find where we were going to sleep, like the kids in a horror movie running off into the creepy depths to get dibs on their room of choice.

At first, we though there weren't enough rooms as we were two rooms short. One was found through a secret door halfway up the stairs (obviously, where else would you put a bedroom if not halfway up the stairs?) but the other was nowhere to be found. We did, however, find that one of the bathrooms had a see through door, which was convenient and not at all weird. That happened to be the bathroom where the shower photos were taken, for reference.

As we were one room short, we decided that me and Stace would share the little twin room we found. As we were unpacking, Stace went to put some of her things in a cupboard and found that it wasn't actually a cupboard. It was the Playboy room.

Let's just say that we shouldn't have been surprised given the secret room half way up the stairs and the transparent bathroom door we had already discovered, but the Playboy room was really next level. A double bed crammed into a little hidden room with horrific pink wallpaper, a pink satin Playboy dressing gown hung up, Playboy pillows and other Playboy memorabilia, as well as a really creepy nude painting on the wall. But best of all, an angled mirror on the ceiling. Perfect. I immediately went to find Andy, I told him it was urgent and he must abandon his unpacking to come and see this. He was just as impressed as we were when he saw the room. He looked at us and said, "well obviously we have to use it for a polaroid shoot!" which is exactly what me and Stacie had already decided.

And that's exactly what we did. We decided not to tell anyone else about the room so we could just shock them with the polaroids afterwards. So we closed the door and didn't say another word. We spent the afternoon shooting around the house, as I said earlier, and then after dinner the three of us made an excuse and snuck off to the Playboy room. With cigarettes, wine, and our sunglasses as props. We also had a bit of a rummage around the Playboy room, and found a copy of the Playboy magazine, which was the final prop we needed to make these shots as great as they are.

These are the images that we got in that little secret room... There were too many good ones so there's a lot more images in this post than I would usually include, I hope you like them as much as I do!

Duo: Bed

We knew that we had to use the latex tops that Andy had that say 'b*tch' and 'c*nt' of course. There was no other clothing that would have suited the room. Here are the first few shots we got: the classic glamour 'two girls in a bed' shots.

Duo: Cigarettes

As you've seen in the image that won the competition, we lit up a few cigarettes in the bed, which just looked pretty cool (disclaimer: smoking is not cool and is absolutely bad for your health, so only smoke for artistic effect in a polaroid photoshoot that takes place in a Playboy room).

Duo: Playboy

The next few shots are me and Stacie 'reading' the Playboy magazine. For the articles, obviously.

Duo: Playboy and Wine

Then, to further the Playboy party vibe, we decided to use the bottle of wine, the Playboy magazine and the Playboy pillow to cover the essentials in a variety of configurations and levels of nudity. These two shots were my favourite.

Duo: Playboy and Cigarettes

These last few shots show us smoking and reading the Playboy in varying positions. Still just for the articles, I assure you. This shoot was a blast and me and Stace really enjoyed trying to one up each other with our silly and tacky ideas to get the most ridiculous shots possible. The middle shot here is a winner for me.

In these few shots, you can see more of the room with the horrific painting and the angled mirror, which just adds to the whole thing.

Duo: Selfie

To finish, here is our selfie :)

That's all from me for this week. I hope you enjoyed seeing something a little different to the work I usually do. I thoroughly enjoyed going through these polaroids and writing this post. It's bought back a lot of lovely, fun, silly memories. I take my work very seriously, and pride myself on the tasteful nature of what I do... but at the same time, getting to shoot something utterly ridiculous and silly with two other creatives that you get on well with, in a location that you find quite by accident is something that just can't be beaten!

Feel free to leave a comment below (you can sign up for an account on my website by the way, just click here).

Until next Monday,

Misuzu x