Chocolate Polaroids on Display in Delaware

Writer and photography / Nancy Breslin

After weeks of travel, Nancy Breslin finds some beautiful work close to home.

I am fortunate to do a fair amount of traveling, and just returned from time in London, Paris, and Barcelona (it was my first visit to the latter, and I hope not my last). Museum and gallery visits are high on my list of things to do, but circumstances this time left little time to view art. On arriving home, however, one of my first stops was Colourworks in Wilmington, Delaware, where I get the film from my pinhole camera processed (9 rolls on this trip). The reception area of Colourworks serves as a gallery for regional photographers, and I was happy today to find some beautiful Polaroids by Bill Wolff. Shooting with a Polaroid 250 Land Camera and expired Polaroid Chocolate Giambarba film, he has captured local streams, ponds and woods, often in fog, creating soft and dreamy brown pictures. The images are enlarged and presented as striking inkjet prints (including the purple edge residue) on watercolor paper. I’ve never used this film, so have no idea how it looks when fresh, but it looks great expired! Wolff teaches writing, and the teacher in him emerges in a display that gives some history about Polaroid (from Edwin Land through the Impossible Project) and talks about the joys and frustrations of working in this medium. If you are in the area, this show is worth a visit.

Colourworks is at 1902 Superfine Lane in Wilmington, Delaware, and the show runs through August 31. More of Wolff’s work can be seen at billwolffphotography.com or flickr.com/billwolff.