I want my creativity back from the content machine.

I keep thinking about these tiny Kodak Charmera cameras, and why they hit such a nerve for me: they feel like taking pictures for the actual joy of it.

Not for content.

Not for engagement.

Not because the lighting is good or because it fits a platform’s preferred aspect ratio.

Just because something looks funny, pretty, or strange, and you want to keep it.

I had this moment recently where I was about to make art and caught myself choosing a canvas that was “TikTok-sized” and immediately thought, what am I doing? Why am I letting an app decide the shape of my art before I’ve even made it? That is bleak. Convenient, sure, but bleak. And I don’t want every creative impulse to pass through the tiny little toll booth of “will this work on social media?”

Sometimes I want to make a thing because I want to make it. Sometimes I just want to take a blurry little photo because it makes me happy. Because whatever I just saw moved something in me.

No strategy.

No algorithmic offering.

No pretending my life is a brand activation.

These little cameras feel like a reminder that photos are allowed to be weird, imperfect, and pointless in the best possible way. Maybe that’s what I’m craving more than nostalgia: proof that I can still make things without immediately asking where they’re supposed to perform.

Polaroid’s new campaign feels like it’s poking the same bruise.

“Real stories. Not stories & reels.”

That’s exactly it. I don’t think I’m suddenly anti-internet or anti-technology, but I am very tired of every creative impulse getting quietly redirected toward content. The Kodak cameras feel fun for the same reason Polaroids still feel good: they make taking a photo feel like a real human act again, not an audition for an app.

And maybe we'll remember how it used to feel to send a little prayer up when you press that shutter button, wait what would feel like an eternity, and then hold that answered (or unanswered. how many of those photos were definitely not what we envisioned :P ) prayer in your hand and relive just a little bit of the joy you felt in that moment.

We don't need robot or crowd approval of our joy. That joy is evident in the fact that the photo exists.

"If you hear that joy has come to town Track it down, take a picture and tape it to your eyes." - Sleepy Tigers