Polaroid Embraces the Messy Beauty of ‘Real Life’

Working with film always had its downsides, from high costs to a development process that could lead to creative disaster—but that has never fully counteracted its unique appeal for photographers.

Although there is significantly less film produced today than in the heyday of the medium, it has seen a surge in demand in recent years, partly due to the distinctive aesthetic that it produces.

Polaroid’s new global brand campaign, titled “Real Life,” acknowledges the experimentation that is necessary to creating great art. The brand’s series sees photographers capturing life’s strange, chaotic or seemingly mundane moments, and urges viewers to find the beauty in imperfections.

Using the Generation 2 Polaroid Now and Polaroid Now+ cameras, 14 photographers reaffirm why Polaroids continue to be popular even in the age of digital photos. The campaign imagery is broken down into four themes: “Real life is having to wait,” “Real life is making the most of those dots & marks,” “Real life is color you can’t control,” and “Real life is sometimes unintentionally beautiful.”

“This campaign is a love letter to the beauty of instant photography. That’s why we aren’t focused on showing the recognizable frame and hero photography. Our Polaroid picture in full bleed speaks for itself,” Patricia Varella, the brand’s creative director, told Adweek.

To capture authentic moments, Polaroid enlisted a diverse group of photographers from around the world. They helped bring to life the campaign’s central premise that beauty can exist anywhere, from a dimly lit apartment to the top of a mountain.

With this approach, Polaroid aimed “to show stories that are usually hard to see in [today’s] media,” said Varella. For example, the “Real life is color you can’t control” series shows sunsets in the American West and the northern lights in Sweden, while “Real life is having to wait” depicts a pregnant Latino woman in California and a community of fisherwomen in Iran.

It can take about 15 minutes for a Polaroid photo to fully develop, and the brand’s photographers embraced this waiting time in their creative process.

“When you take a Polaroid picture, the weather, the ambient temperature, the film condition, the light … all affect how the color comes to life,” Varella explained. “Those imperfections and that lack of control are what make a Polaroid picture unique. We think it is important to embrace what makes you unique.”