Polaroid passions

Linda Pottage with her vintage camera and photographs.Linda Pottage with her vintage camera and photographs.

By Emma Sun
PHOTOGRAPHY taken by a Menzies Creek resident using a vintage Polaroid camera has been displayed in an exhibition.
An old number 78 tram and 1920s lingerie are among the items featured in the pictures.
The artist behind the retro pictures, Linda Pottage, has been a photographer for almost 25 years and has always had a passion for all things vintage.
“I started with film and went to digital but I had a hankering for film – I bought several film cameras and worked on exhibitions on Polaroids and traditional film too,” she said.
“The photographs are called Polaroid transfers and you pull the film out of the camera, peel it apart before it’s fully developed and then you transfer it to another surface, which in this case is water colour paper.”
She said it could be quite difficult to get the timing right, and photographers generally have about a one in five success rate.
“Mine is about one in 10, I’ve taken 10 times as many to get that exhibition because it’s very fiddly and very tricky.”
Ms Pottage hopes viewers enjoy looking through the exhibition as much as she enjoyed creating it.
“I’m delighted with it, I’m so happy with the whole process, it was so magical and so unpredictable,” she said.
“I hope it makes people happy, I hope it triggers memories of an earlier time for older people and I really hope they feel positive and uplifted.”
The exhibition, titled Vintage Printage, will be on display at the Limerence Boutique and Gallery in Belgrave until the end of the month from 6 to 8pm.