Orange Crush
“Follow me, don’t follow me, I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush.” – Michael Stipe, REM. “Orange Crush” is reputedly a political piece about “Agent Orange” that was used during the Vietnam War.
There’s nothing political or bad about Impossible’s Orange Flash, but man it sure seems toxic and it really is a tough nut to crack. This isn’t a film for the faint of heart, especially now that it’s long expired.
I’ve had fun with it and may actually prefer it to the Push! film since it doesn’t require such a crazy heat / hairdryer treatment after every shot. The downside of this film, being old, being experimental is that the chemicals from almost every shot leak onto the rollers of my SX-70 making cleaning a must between in each pack, sometimes in-between shots.
But the results are really interesting. In the age of Instagram filters or even Photoshop effects, you get a really strange mix of lines, layers, sepias and distorted images. My favourite photo of this batch was taken of my wife while indoors at a shopping centre during Christmas time. You can clearly see the star which forms part of the decorations, but in this composition it looks almost as if the elements were super-imposed on each other, like some wannabe album cover.
I think after three months, I also have to give credit to this film in that unlike Push!, the developed film tends to stay and not fade, they do show signs of developing interesting crystal patterns though which just add to their unique feel.
I have a few of these packs left and though I really don’t enjoy the cleaning after every shot, I know the film is pretty unique and one I’ll probably appreciate more over time, after I’m long done with them.
Dude they do fade! After a few months they go all white! At least that’s what happened to all my first-batch or close PX100. I still have a couple packs of that; can pass (a.k.a. give) you whatever I can spare if you’ll like! 😉 We really need to catch up soon – I’ve took a break from photography due to studies but now it’s the holidays, soon anyway, so well screw it, for old times sake!
Btw you’re shooting with PX70 CP now? My friend doesn’t reccomend that; PX680 CP is by far much better as in Singapore’s hot weather, PX70 CP always develops yellowish. May I suggest cooling your PX70 CP; who knows, maybe you’ll see a difference. 🙂