Blow Out (and about) // Bruno Bisang: 30 Years of Polaroids (girls on instant, floppy film)

What: Bruno Bisang: 30 Years of Polaroids – exhibition
When: Until 9th February 2013
Where: The Little Black Gallery, 13A Park Walk, London
Getting there: Nearby tubes – Fulham Broadway, West Brompton, South Kensington

I must ‘fess up that, thanks to my trusty iPhone, I don’t own a camera anymore.

Gone are the days when I’d lug my size-of-a-frridge Polaroid camera around London, snapping instant, arty-looking shots.

Nope, these days I do it all at the press of a button with Instagram, adding the retro stylefinish of my choice.

Is anyone else Insta-Challenged, BTW? I still have to scroll through every single filter option, before deciding on Valencia AKA the second from front and the ONE I USE EVERY SINGLE BLOODY TIME. ARRRRGGGHHHHHH.

Still, you just can’t beat the bona fide vintage charm of a Polaroid, as Swiss fashion photographer Bruno Bisang demonstrates with his latest exhibition – his pretty hefty archive of Polaroid pics from shoots for fashwan mags.

Bisang has kept every Polaroid he’s ever taken, starting with his first shoot 30 years ago. As he says:

Polaroids aren’t retouched. They have the feeling and the emotions of that moment. I saved all my Polaroids because the models were writing personal “Thank you” notes to me. Now these Polaroids are a reminder from that time, like a diary.

The result is this new exhibition at London’s Little Black Gallery, with some of Bisang’s most memorable – and super sexy – shots including the likes of supermodels Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Carla Bruni and Monica Bellucci on display.

Complete with scribbled signatures and notes, each Polaroid tells a story of the image, giving us a unique insight into the creation of fashion editorial. Plus, they look shit hot cool, too.

If you can’t make the show, you can always add Bisang’s book, 30 Years of Polaroids, to your coffee table collection.