Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Polaroid Psycho Psanalysis

Polaroid photos make you look like a murderer. This is a fact. If you manage to scrounge up the now-discontinued-once-ubiquitous camera from the photographic netherworld, snap a picture of your sweetest little kitten or even a prairie dog, and prepare to cringe in an instinctual defense posture as the terrifying face of a psychotic killer stares back at you with cold, beady little eyes.

If you still have a box of old photos lying around somewhere, collecting dust, or have managed to slap those suckers into a photo album (like some sort of crazy person would put polaroids into a nice photo album,) you can dig those up and take a quick peek at your sad embarrassing past.

Done? Ok, are you surprised none of the subjects have murdered and raped their way into a mental institution? If not, you might have had a regular camera, better look a little longer. Polaroids have big white borders, an extra layer, and the image of the very devil captured in every one.

I have a few theories. One is that the polarizing effect only filters out whatever good is present in the world, and only captures the malignant and horrible.

The other theory is that the quality is shit and the lighting is pathetic, and the photographer has the skills of a manatee.

Neither theory is completely supported by the evidence, nor is completely thought out by anyone qualified to make that judgement.

Another theory is that the world is truly evil, and that the camera merely captures the truth of the matter; some have even posited that the mechanism of the camera works on an occult principle, using some sort of demonic imp inside the physical camera itself, sketching the world as seen through it's twisted little eye, but those people are nuts, one should treat their theories with caution.