Polaroids eroded by Thames

About 3 weeks ago I made few Polaroids of the water splashing on the waterman stairs around Wapping.

I collected 0.5l of water from the Thames and brought it home.

Trimmed the edges of the Polaroids and left them in the water since.

The water did its job and separated the emulsion form the carrier and created a shift in colours in a very interesting way

I than placed the emulsion on to few types of paper such as Photorag, Ilford negative B&w and FujiFolm color darkroom paper. I fixed the B&w for a little bit, with some very old fixer I had in my studio. I used the same water mixed with fixer to lift and transfer the emulsion on the Fuji paper but the fixer made it become white.

The residual deposits on paper are from the river Thames, so I left them on paper.

The Polaroids films are made of layers of photosensitive emulsions and dyes. The water decayed the initial image made durring the exposure and made the dyes present in the emulsion to shift and mix. The water also made the emulsion to stretch.

I enjoyed working this way, Polaroid emulsion transfer has been used by other artists such as Rhiannon Adam.

I liked how the emulsion floated in the water, creating a 3d shape

The emulsion didn't transferred perfectly on to paper and it made some creases, but I like that that, I wouldn't want them to be perfect.

Not sure whats next with this type of work, but I did enjoy making them so I will do some more. I will perhaps try to leave them less time in the water.