Jesse Freidin – Dog Photographer

Though traditional printing and medium format black and white film compliments my Fine Art dog portraits perfectly, there is another love in my life.

It’s Polaroid.

And we’re serious.

I fell in love with my Hasselblad about 5 years ago- I was immediately taken by it’s weight, the crispness of it’s images, and it’s unique handling. You really need to become one with the Hasselblad in order to make it work for you. That kind of challenge (both mental and physical), is what drew me to it, along with the seductive square format that complimented my way of seeing. We had a slightly rocky start, me and my Hasselblad 500c, but once we grew to understand and respect each other, the camera became like an extension of my eye. It was effortless.

Before falling in love with my Hassy, my heart belonged exclusively to Polaroid. At the point in my life when I finally came across my 1970s Hasselblad, I was deep in a never-ending search for a camera that could replace my very first love: my Polaroid Land Camera (ok, I’ve got like 15 of them). I’d been collecting Polaroid cameras for almost 10 years, and we just fit. My extensive relationship with Polaroid cameras, film,  and gadgets was what truly brought me into the world of photography. I taught myself how to see, how to photograph, and how to interact with the world through the dusty, imperfect view finder of my Land Camera. But, after years of collecting and photographing with Polaroids, I was ready to move on, to take the next step. I wanted to begin having more control over my images, and wanted to be able to reproduce my images as well. My Polaroid work wasn’t taken very seriously because it had the stigma of ‘instant photography.’ Thus began my search for the perfect film camera, which ended me up here.

Are you getting all this?

The point is, my Polaroid dog portraits have finally caught the eye of someone at the Impossible Project (the life-force keeping the Polaroid company alive). They have sent me film, a personalized note, and I’ll soon be embarking on a don’t-try-it-at-home, one-of-a-kind, completely amazing dog portrait series using some of the highly sought after last run of film the Polaroid company ever made. It’s so exciting that it makes writing in a linear fashion really hard.  Keep your eyes peeled- details will follow.

In celebration, here is a quick smattering of some of my favorite Polaroid images from the past 10 years. And if you’re really interested in my personal Polaroid work, you can see and/or purchase my book ‘Life in Boxes: An Instant Collection’ on blurb.com by clicking here: www.blurb.com/books/575402.