Why are you using a Polaroid Spectra camera?
Much like my decision to use the Risograph for printing the Mis.Steps cards, I selected the Polaroid Spectra instant camera because I was looking to capture the city stairs in a very particular visual manner. For many of us, the “look” of Polaroid photos brings us back to the 1970s when instant photography technology exploded and was making its way into homes all across America. For Pittsburgh, the 70s ushered in economic downturns, population flight, and the beginning of decades-long scaling back of municipal spending and infrastructure upkeep. Pittsburgh wasn’t alone in its plight; the same was happening in industrial cities throughout the country, but the change here was dramatic. In the early years of the twentieth century, Pittsburgh was one of the ten largest cities in the United States, and at the height of the Pittsburgh employment “boom,” the 1950 US Census shows the city’s population to be 676,806. Compare that to the 2020 census which indicates 302,971. Why would a city with falling tax revenues, a failing economy, and a dwindling population continue to support public stairways?
Introduced by Polaroid in the 1980s, the Spectra uses a special wide-format instant film that is ideal for capturing landscapes such as those seen from many of the city’s stairs. While my photographs are being taken between 2017 and 2022, it’s a time when hopeful feelings for growth and prosperity are in the air, and many life-long and new residents are once again looking at their neighborhood’s public stairways and wondering how they might be preserved.