After capturing an original photograph and exposing it onto SX70 (Time Zero) Polaroid film, we create a new work of art by lightly sculpting the soft developing emulsion with a myriad of tools, and then hand-color the image. This manipulation of the photographic dyes within the film before they harden results in an impressionistic “painting,” which is scanned and digitally enlarged onto archival paper or canvas. This print is then hand-finished with pastels, oils or colored pencil.

Kerr Images is available to create for you commissioned personal scenics and portraitures, custom-produced to commemorate favorite scenes or special events.

Image transfer is a technique by which color Polaroid peel-apart film is used to create an original print on a range of non-photographic surfaces.

Legend has it that this process was accidentally discovered when a Polaroid negative was left sitting on a lab counter. The normal Polaroid process is interrupted and the negative is placed on another material, usually paper. The dyes that will form the image are transferred through heat and pressure. The film is exposed, but instead of waiting the usual 60 seconds, it is almost immediately peeled apart, the print discarded, and the negative placed face down on a suitable receptor sheet. The back of the negative is then lightly rubbed to help transfer the image and after one or two minutes gently peeled from the receptor sheet, hopefully leaving the image behind.

Due to the nature of the process each print is an original and it is unlikely that one could ever get exactly the same result twice. The timing of peeling of both the original film and the transferred print, along with the receptor surface texture, temperature, and humidity, are all variables affecting the end result. Once the image dries, it is scanned and digitally enlarged onto archival watercolor paper. From there, we hand-color the final image with colored pencil and pastels.