“My name is Kacper Drwenski and I’m a Junior at Palatine High School. I’m lightly involved in photo club, but I’m most involved in yearbook club.I am in the yearbook room every day until 5pm. I’m in the student life section and finished the homecoming dance spread, and I’m almost done with my fall play spread. In the beginning of the year, I have had zero photoshop experience. Because of yearbook club, I have been able to drastically improve my skills with a little help from a few friends. It’s a phenomenal club and it feels like a family, and everyone there is incredibly nice.”

“A hobby that I have been pursuing has been photography, but I mainly work with film. For a little over a year, I have been taking photos with old Polaroid cameras. To a lot of people’s surprise, including mine, there is new film being produced for both old and new Polaroid cameras, but I love to play around with expired film. There’s something exciting about seeing a photo develop with some imperfections and washed out colors. It can even make the photo look better than if it was taken on fresh film. Some newer films can have a few color streaks also. That’s the beauty of instant photography, you don’t know what’s going to develop on that photo, and it’s exciting to see the end result. What’s even more incredible is that it’s your photo, and it’s one of a kind. You can hold it in your hand and even give it to other people. You can’t replicate that sort of magic with DSLR cameras. Currently, I own two One600 cameras, a Sun600, an image Spectra, an SX-70 Sonar, and an impossible I-1 camera. I also own a Polaroid swinger and a big swinger, but they don’t work because the film that they use is now discontinued. It’s extremely difficult to pick out what camera I want to use because they all are unique in their own ways. Choosing my packs of film is even more difficult, considering I have the options of color or monochromatic film, white border, black border, color borders; there’s so many options to choose from. And of course, you don’t shake the photos, even if OutKast tells you so.”

“Contrary to popular belief, as much as many people believe that I want to be a photographer, that’s not the case. I’d like to explore the field of interior design and home decorating. It’s something that always interested me for years. I always loved to decorate my room the way that I want it because I spend a majority of my time in there. I took the interior design class during my sophomore year and I don’t regret it one bit.”

Some Polaroids taken by Kacper!