Underwater photos taken with a... Polaroid?!

Practically everyone who dives is fascinated to a greater or lesser extent by underwater photography. Whether it’s wrecks, caves, schools of fish or beautiful macro shots, we find something in them that draws us underwater, interests us and inspires us as we plan and execute our development as a diver. But have any of you heard of taking photos underwater with the legendary Polaroid camera before!

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Dietmar W. Fuchs is a marine biologist who has opened and run a number of successful and successful dive magazines during his career. One of the goals he has set for himself is to revive analogue underwater photography. In a world dominated by electronics and digitised to the limit, he decided to use the classic 1972 Polaroid SX-70 and depict the underwater world through instant analogue photography.

He talks about the changing situation in underwater photography as follows:

“As publisher of mainstream dive magazines, I welcomed the digital age with open arms. Never before had so many sensational images hit my desk. But with this change came a new problem. The challenge to get the best shot, the unique frame, something totally unique, the most interesting story – this is gone. Thousands of great underwater photos have flooded the market. Photographers can rely on their great camera, a well-chosen lens, an expensive underwater housing, a great lighting system and, finally, on Photoshop image processing. All of this means that today almost anyone can take pictures that are close in quality to the best frames taken by the best photographers I happen to work with.”

As it turned out, the idea of analogue instant photography caught on and soon there were people for whom this kind of photography seemed attractive enough to follow it and try their hand at using a tool under water, which obviously has much greater limitations than the photo sets available today.

Dietmar got his copy of the SX-70 on ebay, while it turned out that only one company survived until today, which manufactures and sells films for instant photography. Now it only remained to find the right housing. The solution turned out to be a product of the popular Ikelite brand, which has been around since 1962.

The effects are, as the author himself says, specific and unique. But this is something you might expect from equipment that offers only two types of settings and has a tiny flash. However, it is something he was aiming for. He didn’t want perfect photographs stripped of their soul by graphic processing. He wanted the effort and imperfections in the frames to be visible, giving each photo a unique character, making it one of a kind.

Although these are not photographs that could compete for a place on the covers of magazines, the author himself sees in them artistic potential and uniqueness, which is very hard to find in the world of digital photography.

“I hope I have found a way to bring back creative analogue underwater photography. I would love that,” concludes the photographer.

Source: divephotoguide.com, magazine.the-impossible-project.com