In March of 2000, my last visit to Egypt, I hauled along an old Graflex Press View camera. Dating from the late 50s, this is a single-frame-at-a-time 4×5 inch film camera. I also took along 40 sheets of Polaroid Type 55 film – yes, Polaroid film. Type 55 produced a positive and a beautiful negative, that when pulled apart as Polaroids used to require, the negative would need to be processed in a fix bath and subsequently a hypo-clear and Photo-Flo wash before being hung to dry. Not an easy thing to do while living out of a backpack in Egypt over two weeks. Note that I used the past tense with Type 55… Polaroid became a non-entity a couple of years ago, and the last batches of Type 55 were produced at that point. I have one and a half boxes left (roughly 30 sheets). I have determined to only take images of my children with them, with the thought that they are very likely the last generation of people to ever have their photograph originated on BW film.
Nevertheless, I saved up Polaroid sheets and batch processed them in hotel rooms (usually 10 at a time), using chemistry and little 5×7 trays I specifically brought over with me. I had done the same in Guatemala five years earlier and that had worked out rather well, and so felt confident the Egypt results would be similar.
It was a lot of fun and I pulled and processed all 40 sheets while there. Here are some examples of that shoot:
