Atelier 99
( Gallery 99 West)
New York
Naoki Okamoto - Artist
About the image transfers
I made all the transfers with the photos I took over the years,including the portrait of fashion models that had been published in the magazines (though that was a long time ago...).
The images on the slides were exposed on the Polaroid (and few with Fuji Instant film) with the slide printer. It is relatively simple process yet results are unpredictable and very much rely on a chance. I made many, often more than a dozen on each image just to get one successful transfer. In the end, hundreds of them went to a trash bin.
All the original transfers were made on the water color paper by Arches of France.
Prints;
I selected the best ones and scanned them for prints. The prints are visually almost identical to the originals - I tried to much to the originals as best I could...
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Series 1 Painted with water color around the borders
Image size approx. 4"x4"
Series 2 Image size approx. 3.25"x 4.25"
Originals;
$50~$250 depending on the quality. Available only in limited numbers.
Prints; All prints are archival printed with the Epson 2200 printer on Epson Velvet fine art paper(for large) and acid free 200gms weight paper by Inkpress(for small). The 2200 printer uses pigment color inks that the color will last long time(about 70 years-according to the lab test).
Small; image size is the same as the original in 8"x10" mat .....$20
Large; image size -7"x7" or 5.5"X7" in 11"x14" mat..... $40
*+tax and S/H
*mat color/cream white only for orders:
------------------------------------------------------- About myself.... I worked as a professional photographer over 35 years,mostly for the fashion magazines in Japan & Europe, now retired. * I learned photography first time in my high school camera club, though only with few darkroom sessions and few field trips with borrowed camera and that was it then forgot all about it because I wanted to be a painter. Later I studied painting in the art school in Tokyo. After graduating the school,I started out as a painter, at least so I hoped but it was hard to support myself. Also I became more seriously interested in photography by then, though not much for the sake of art but as a profession.
Thus I enrolled in the another art school and studied commercial photography in advertising, fashion & beauty.
My career began when I was already 28 years old as I started to work for the recording companies to photograph the musicians(Rock-n- Roll,Pop,Folk,Jazz & etc.)for jacket covers and posters. It was a lucky start and was fun.
Polaroid transfer is one of image transfer technique known since 1960s(according to my research). I once tried it almost 20 years ago and in October 2008 I started to do it all over again realizing that the film is still available(God knows for how long!?).
As it turned out, the production of the film ended some time ago (around Dec.2008,is my guess). So I think I made it in very last minute. Type 669 film can be found in eBay but the price has already been at least doubled or more besides all of them are past expiration date. .... May 2008
In the end of September, I found and bought 5 double pack 669s in eBay.They were expired on 04/2009 and were most likely the last ones shipped out of the factory. The film lost a color balance and were not clean as new film so this will be the last time I do the transfer. Somehow, I was able to make about a dozen or so successful transfers, plus 6 new images - out of 100 sheets of film! - I'm selling them at my stand at the Met and /or in Union Square. If you are interested in, please drop by. ..... Oct. 2009
*Available only in limited numbers
Some of originals were sold out, Thank you!! ..... Jan.10/ 2010
Polaroid is back!(or about to...?)
I just heard the news from famous Italian Polaroid artist that they are making 669 and other film again. He works for Italian Polaroid company so he knows about it and was visiting New York and also bought 3 of my original transfers for Polaroid Italia, Thank You!! ...Jan.2010
*If the production is long term or temporally, I didn't get that much info. We'll have to wait and see. *It seems that the film is sold only in Europe at this time and is not available in the stores nor in their web site in the USA just yet...
Questions/email/leave a comment;
naoki@art-naokiokamoto.com en Français, si vous voulez 日本語でどうぞ
for more technical info & tutorials for transfer; Google>Polaroid transfer
