Dr.Frankenroid

The Great Recession took its toll. In a matter of months my life and millions of others were turned upside down. I took the down time as an opportunity to push back. Polaroid had just been dissolved in Bankruptcy and a handful of passionate artists around the world pitched in to save the instant photography artform. “Doc” Florian Kaps led the charge to purchase the last Polaroid film manufacturing plant in Enschede Netherlands and formed The Impossible Project.

I formed Dr. Frankenroid in an effort to stitch together and resurrect Polaroid one photograph at a time. It was my small effort to tell the story and spread the gospel of instant photography. I created an online store in Ebay and an online museum on Facebook. My goal was to capture and document as many rare Polaroid cameras and ephemera as possible in an effort to tell a story about the importance of Polaroid to the global community.

Dr. Frankenroid was featured in Popular Photography Magazine where I wrote an essay on how to build a vintage Polaroid camera collection. I explain a bit of the history of the cameras and the evolution of the film they use.

Dr.Frankenroid was featured in Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are by Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer where I tell the story of how Dr.Frankenroid was formed, why I chose Polaroid and how my own fandom led to some of my own surprisingly personal insights.

I have sold much of my collection. The point was to create an online museum and tell a story. I needed Dr.Frankenroid. It was a dark time that needed light. I am eternally thankful to The Impossible Project. I was able to explore an artform, create an identity and brand, keep my creative juices flowing and produce something meaningful while I waited for my architecture career to pick up again. Be the light that leads others through darkness.