Meeting of the Mammoths: Photographing the Polaroid 20x24"

In the mid 1970s. the Polaroid company produced a handful of special experimental cameras. Using super-wide wide film they produced instant pictures in a true 'Mammoth Plate' size of 20 x 24 inches.

A rare beastie: This is Polaroid 20x24 camera No. 5.

Trying to pin down the exact history is tricky but the general consensus is that five or six cameras were originally made in around 1976. They were lent or leased to a variety of people to help promote Polaroid's latest instant film technology.  Not all the original cameras are still in use, but a few more were made by Wisner and others later. Anyway, these days a 20x24 Polaroid is one of the rarest cameras in existence.

20x24 Studio Berlin are a group of photographers using an original Polaroid 20x24.  Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to join them on a shoot at a large private car museum. The curator knows my interest in unusual cameras. He'd forgotten that I own a 20x24" too!  Although mine is not an instant camera, two 'Mammoth Plate cameras together was too good an opportunity to miss, so I brought my "Behemoth" with me.

The camera is a strange mixture of Hi-tech and DIY engineering. The camera frame is very solidly made with some beautifully machined parts for the focus and lens movements, and some clever and complex mechanical linkages for powering the rollers and inserting the chemical pods. Other parts seem strangely home-made. Every camera is different and they all have had modifications and repairs over the last four decades.

Level and tilt indicators

These curious square knobs and the wood veneer are very 1970s 

While we're being really nerdy:  the lens is a Fuji 600mm f/11 in a Copal 3 shutter. Here a light magenta filter is being used to counteract a greenish tinge to the film.

Bespoke handles for raising the level contrast with the socket set ratchet for angle control.  This is an updated version of a traditional Victorian studio stand.

The brass knob activates the pod advance- drop mechanism. The square buttons control the roller motor and the round thing is a speaker - it beeps as it disgorges the film.   I'm not sure what the digits are for. They don't do anything on this camera now.

Focusing the camera: the focus cloth is double duvet sized!

Ready to shoot:  The back is closed, the neg pulled downed the shutter is cocked.

Unlike almost all other instant films, the material comes on long rolls. The black-backed negative part  comes on a roll about 50 metres long by 500mm (20") wide: Enough for about 45 pictures.  The print paper is the same width but shorter rolls as it is thicker. They can be changed independently.

Inside the camera back: white paper roll at the bottom, black negative roll at the top. Note the string for pulling the neg down like a blind.

The chemistry is contained in 'pods': triple sachets which are introduced between the neg and print before being squeezed out to spread the processing gel evenly over the surface. Once the image is composed and focused the focus screen is removed from the back and the door is shut.
The shooting sequence is:
The neg is pulled down like a blind inside the camera using a piece of string taped to the bottom edge. A small amount is allowed to protrude through a light trap at the base.
The exposure is made. The film speed is around ISO 32 depending on the light source being used.
A pair of film pods are dropped between the neg and paper using a complex remote control mechanism. (Ollie the photographer puts his head against the camera to listen for the sound of the pods dropping home to ensure they are in place).  A quirk of the camera is that it needs to be properly vertical for this, tilting the camera from angled to upright every time (hence the angle gauges) and landscape format also isn't really an option.
A motor drives the rollers which extrude the paper, neg and chemistry together evenly. The rollers must be perfectly aligned and regularly checked with feeler gauges. Pairs of small pods work better than larger single ones apparently.
Once extruded, the edges are wiped (Polaroid chemical gel is horrible caustic stuff!) and the film/paper cut off the roll with a knife.

Ollie wipes the excess chemicals off the edges of the film.

After about 70 seconds the neg is peeled away to reveal the print.

Peeling off the negative layer.  The prints are taped down to stop them curling up as they dry.

The guys from 20x24 studio were on a tight schedule, wheeling cars onto the black fabric background, shooting one or two pictures of each then wheeling them off again.  I didn't want to get in their way but equally I  really wanted to make a portrait of a fellow 20x24" photographer made with another 20x24" camera so I set up the Behemoth to one side and waited for an opportunity between shots to photograph Ollie and Markus:

My (paper) negs were around ISO 3 and the museum was very dark. I borrowed some of Ollie's lights but we still needed around a 60 second exposure and 16 flashes from twin 2K Elinchroms!  The guys did a great job of staying immobile and staring into the lights.

Markus and Oliver of 20x24 Studio Berlin.  November 2018.

Thanks to all the guys from 20x24  Studio Berlin for being so generous with their time and to Rob for introducing us so we could share our love of photography, film and absurdly large cameras.

It was great to have two mammoth cameras together. At the end of the day I pointed out mine has a shoulder strap (it is just about useable) "Ah!" said Ollie, "Back in Berlin we have a selfie stick for ours!"...

Links:

20x24 Studio New York:  https://20x24studio.com
Lots here on the history and operational details of the cameras, plus sample images, video clips etc.

20x24 Studio Berlin:  http://20x24-studio-berlin.com

Elsa Dorfman: http://www.elsadorfman.com
Elsa Dorfman has been making portraits on Polaroid 20x24 for longer than anyone else.

Chuck Close: https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2014/february/06/have-you-seen-the-size-of-chuck-close-s-camera/
Chuck Close has made some very interesting work with a variety of photo processes. This links to his Polaroid work for Vanity Fair.

William Wegman: https://wegmanworld.typepad.com/wegman_world/process/
William Wegman's blog article looking back at the work he made on the 20x24"