MY POLAROID SELFIES: 1981 Book 1 by Melinda Camber PorterMelinda Camber Porter was fascinated by the Polaroid and the fact one was able to get instant feedback and not wait days or weeks to get one’s traditional photography developed. Today, of course, we call this a ‘Selfie’. But, her 48 Polaroid photos were taken with her Polaroid camera purchased in 1981. It became her 'Selfie Diary.'My Polaroid Selfies: 1981 Book 1 by Melinda Camber PorterISSN: Volume 2, Number 8: Includes 48 Polaroid SelfiesForwards by: Michael Edelson, Professor Emeritus Stony BrookUniversity of film and photography and Storm Ascher, ArtistVolume 2, Number 8 (Blake Press)Hardcover: (ISBN: 978-1-942231-58-5), 8½x11, $49.99 (2017).(192 pages, 210 photo illustrations, index, and bibliography)Ebook: (ISBN: 978-1-942231-59-2), $3.99 (2017).See Melinda Camber Porter on YouTube… It took Edwin Land over 50 years to develop and commercialize the Polaroid Camera, we are informed in the Foreward by Michael Edelson, Professor Emeritus of film and photography at Stony Brook University. Edelson states, “Melinda Camber Porter, as usual, was inspired by William Blake who spoke so often about the face and its binding to the soul. In fact, the only way to achieve a personal wholeness, he felt, was through unifying the body and spirit. Gazing at these images requires the viewer to undertake a languid journey of intimate exploration. These Polaroid photographs function just as diary entries for her. One writes the most inner secrets onto the pages. Some, beside hiding the book, also maintain a closed lock with a key that only one person possesses. Here the pages are open and free; no lock nor hiding place. Only patience and an open eye is needed to reach the true faculty of knowing, the faculty of many experiences as William Blake pointed out.” The Polaroid Corporation once a billion dollars company, died a slow death with the digital age, but has again returned 40 years later to fascinate all: “Melinda Camber Porter had an ability to transcend the element of time in all of her creative works; representing imagery and writing about personal experiences that could ultimately be an overall expression of the human experience. She understood this Polaroid phenomenon of documenting the self before it was coined the “selfie” by the Millennial generation,” states, Storm Asher in her 2017 Foreward, as an Artist and a Millennial Polaroid Photographer. Melinda Camber Porter passed away of ovarian cancer in 2008 and left a significant body of work in art, journalism, and literature. The Melinda Camber Porter Archive wishes to share these conversations with the public to ensure the continuation and expansion of the ideas expressed in her creative works.
