I will mail you a Polaroid of anything in New York City
I’m Joe, and I live in New York City. I also really love Polaroids. Polaroid has recently announced that they are discontinuing their instant film. Although sadly inevitable, I regret that more people didn’t get a chance to appreciate the unique quality of Polaroids. So, I decided to start a project. For a few dollars, I will send you a Polaroid of anything anywhere in New York City. I don’t already have these stocked up - each one will be taken just for you. You will have the only copy in the entire world of a picture that was taken by someone else for you and you alone. That means way more than any other medium or method of exchange - there is a solitary, tangible record of a single moment in time shared by two strangers. I’m not doing this for money. The prices cover the film, postage, train fare, etc. It’s about interaction, distance, moments in time and most importantly the most awesome photographic medium ever. So, here are some Polaroids you can have:
- Coney Island
- Buy now for $10
- View from the top of the Empire State Building
- (It costs a lot to go up to the top)
Buy now for $35 - The Brooklyn Bridge
- Or the Manhattan Bridge. Or come to think of it, just about any bridge you want. (Specify the bridge you want in the notes section)
Buy now for $5 - Purchased by Backseat Goodbye, Jan Paul Koudstaal
- A rush hour traffic jam
- Buy now for $5
- A snobby upscale art gallery
- Buy now for $5
- A run down trendy art gallery
- Buy now for $5
- The house that served as George Costanza’s parent’s house on Seinfeld
- Buy now for $5
- The Manhattan skyline
- Buy now for $5
- Purchased by Hilton Hudnell on May 20, 2008
- A tree grows in Brooklyn
- I’ll send you a Polaroid of a tree growing somewhere in Brooklyn, and I’ll write down its nearest address so you can google earth it to confirm that it is indeed growing in Brooklyn.
Buy now for $5 - Purchased 5x by Luke Strosnider on August 1 and Allison Sebastian on October 31.
- Any animal at the Bronx Zoo
- Specify which animal you want in the notes section.
Buy now for $20 - Your family’s name on the wall at Ellis Island
- If it’s not there (no guarantees obviously), I’ll send you a Polaroid of someone pointing to a name on the wall, but just far away enough that you cant make out the name. I will then write your family’s name on the bottom part of the Polaroid itself so you can pretend that it’s your name being pointed to, and that you went on a trip all the way to New York so you could research your roots. (Don’t forget to include your name in the notes section)
Buy now for $40 - The building on the cover of Led Zepplin’s Physical Graffiti
- Buy now for $5
- Purchased by Judith Boyce on May 26, 2008 and Anna Bentley on September 8, 2008
- My apartment
- Buy now for $3
- Anywhere, anytime
- You give me a time of day. I will take a Polaroid of whatever I see, wherever I am at that time on the day following payment. I might try to include a clock, a watch or something indicating the time. Then I will write on the bottom part of the Polaroid the time, date and place. If I coincidentally happen to be outside of the city on that day, I will wait until the given time on the first day that I return. (Include the time in the notes section)
Buy now for $5 - Purchased by Moonflower Images on May 9, 2008
- Someone holding a sign with your name on it in Times Square
- Make sure to include your name in the notes section.
Buy now for $10 - Purchased by Sanket Bulsara, Rachel, Christy Morgenroth, Callie Sokoloski, Taylor Beseda, David Vu, Angela Keefer, Wendy Yong
- My favorite place
- I will send you a Polaroid taken while standing in my favorite place to stand in the whole city. You’ll have to wait to get it to find out what it is. You might find it awesome, or you might find it totally lame. So buyer beware.
Buy now for $12 - Somewhere I have never been
- I will go somewhere in the city I have never ever been and take a Polaroid for you. And I won’t bullshit you, like “oh I’ve never stood on the corner of the table in my living room - click”. No. It’s a big city - I’ll go somewhere that I’ve never even been near before. To give you an idea, some places that come to mind that I have never been are Far Rockaway, Inwood and Governer’s Island.
Buy now for $12 - A secret place
- Ok it’s not really a huge secret, but it’s a really cool place and I haven’t met anyone else who knows about it, not even people who live in its vicinity. Obviously there must be other people who know about it, but I haven’t met em yet.
- Purchased by Nathaniel Pettis on October 2, 2008
Buy now for $15
New York is filled with…well…let’s face it - freaks. You can also have a Polaroid of any one of the millions of unique and quintessentially New York characters such as:
- A confused and lost tourist
- Buy now for $10
- A guy eating a huge slice of NY style pizza
- Buy now for $5
- Purchased by Genevive Laplante on May 8, 2008
- A street vender holding up a giant pretzel
- *note: I raised the price of this one because after the first person bought it, I realized that the vendor won’t let me take the picture unless I buy the pretzel from him.
- Buy now for $7
- Purchased by Maggie Carey on August 25, 2008
- A big group of Hasidic Jews walking down the street
- Buy now for $5
- Purchased by Allison Sebastian on October 31
- A drag queen
- (the cost is for the cover charge to the club)
Buy now for $30 - A stranger in the subway
- Buy now for $10
- Purchased by Daniel Busch on May 9, 2008
- I’ll ask a stranger to let me into thier house and take a Polaroid of them in it
- Buy now for $50
- Me
- Buy now for $3
These are just some of my ideas. Also, you can request a custom Polaroid. If you have an idea of something you want, whatever it is, I’m willing to entertain it. Contact me and tell me what you want. If it’s doable I’ll email you back and tell you how much it will cost. Most stuff will be just a few dollars in order to cover travel, the Polaroid itself and postage. But it might be more if I have to pay a bridge toll or an entrance fee or something like that. If it’s a good idea maybe I’ll put it up with the rest of the suggested ideas.
A few of the custom Polaroids that have been purchased are a Polaroid of me holding a Polaroid I just took, Radio City Music Hall, the NBC building, and a couple outside thier apartment.
The other part of the project is the trade. You send me a Polaroid. Of anything you want. I’ll send you a Polaroid back. Of anything I want. It would be nice to get Polaroids of stuff I can’t see in New York, but you can send whatever you want. But keep in mind that the cooler your Polaroid is, the harder I will work on taking a cool one for you. I really want to do this. So please send me a Polaroid. Make sure that you include your return address. If you want, here are some ideas of Polaroids that I wouldn’t mind getting:
The Taj Mahal
Uluru
your favorite local pizza place
something uninteresting at a very popular tourist spot (like the bathrooms in the Louvre or something like that)
you
me (if you pulled that off you’d be my freaking hero)
send it to me at:
Joe Howansky
PO box 4094
Forest Hills, NY 11375