The death of Polaroid made a lot of fashion editors, photographers and instant picture lovers (author included) miserable. 12 Instances, a group exhibition of Polaroid works at Heist Gallery, glances with nostalgia at the farewell world of instant snaps.

Curated by artist Molly Surno, 12 Instances comprises random self-portraits, night visions, interpretations of other people’s artwork, vacation memories and studies of light and darkness. Twelve artists invite viewers into Polaroid’s dreamy and intimate world, each with their own story to tell, but united by Polaroid’s typical blueish-yellowish palette, vignetting and blurriness. My favorites were the acidy Mary Popins by Grant Worth and sleepy cityscapes at night by Jem Cohen.

This December, a sequel to the show will require each artist to shoot with a Fuji-roid–Fuji’s take on the good old instant camera. The camera itself is huge; you have to use batteries to turn it on and the picture format has changed into a longer, thinner version, but it still takes dreamy pictures (I thought new ones looked sharper). The participants now have to come up with new material using the instant camera.

Photos by Molly Surno and Olivia Wyatt.