P20X
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P20X ⎯
Project Overview / Thesis
Prelude 2020 (Also written and visually expressed as P20XX or P20X) is a collection of my Polaroid photographs taken from late 2017 through 2019. The collection contains series of photos linked together by location, theme, or aesthetic. The project came to be as a way for me to share my collection and accidently lined up with documentation of a pre-2020 world. Not intending to be much deeper in meaning, it does show an interesting look at the calm before the storm (so to speak) through my lens.
Polaroids and other instant film remain intrinsically social. Commonly used at social gatherings to capture moments in the here and now, as well as allowing the novelty of experiencing the development of film in real time. I wanted to focus on the opposite, non-social aspects. Focusing on inanimate subjects, landscapes, and architecture. Objects, things, and uncommon practices a Polaroid doesn’t always necessarily excel at capturing. The project logo was created to be variable and adaptable, allowing it to morph and grow as expressed by the animations below. Highly inspirated by adaptable type and coincidently very similar to Sony’s Playstation font.
Result
A total of 118 chosen photos were curated out of a collection of around 300+ pictures. Throughout 2024 I posted a new series to my Instagram account every 3-4 weeks. At the time the posts were limited to 10 slides and still in a 1:1 ratio format.
This lined up perfectly with Polaroids 8 picture cartridges, and left 2 slides open for additional content. I decided to push the envelope further by challenging myself to work in two mediums I don’t normally work in, collage and animation. The additional pieces of the adaptable logo, series animations, and collages elevated the project to expand past the boundary of the lens and made it more than just a side photography project.
