Index by Subject

He had peeled apart the familiar photo sandwich and discarded the negative. To his surprise sometime later, a distinct image had been created on the top surface of the counter. Other workers started experimenting with this transferring, and a cult process was born. For many years, Polaroid founder and director was said to have Dr. Edwin Lang actively discouraged this "deviant" activity-- feeling that the orthodox print was the "correct" image.

In more recent years, Polaroid has realized that transfers are here to stay, and actively promotes the used of Polaroid emulsions for transfers. They now provide kits, information, and promotion for the process. Image transfers are one-of-a-kind pieces, because the negative is used up in the process, and because the migration of gelatin and dyes is not highly controllable. The resulting images are

But artists and photographers found out about it and fell in love with the painterly quality of the transfers and the unpredictability of the process.

always subtly different, even when using the same beginning image. Transfers can be made to fine-art watercolor paper (the usual method) or to more varied surfaces such as rice papers, silk, etc. For me, and probably for most photographers and artists, the variability and uniqueness is only part of the attraction of transfers. In a way, transfers also transform an image. Although there is a very wide range of "looks" to transfers now that many people have been making them, many of them end up taking the photograph beyond the realm of the literal image. Transfers tend to have a somewhat unsaturated palette and a slightly softer focus. Often they may have a more painterly look because of the distortions in the physical movement of the image.

To the Image Transfer Gallery

Technical Information about the Image Transfer Process