For more than two decades, one of Greater Boston’s more notable artists — photographer Elsa Dorfman — has been shooting stunningly detailed portraits with her giant Polaroid camera, one of just a half-dozen or so in the world. But because of Polaroid’s recent bankruptcy, Dorfman is wondering how much longer she’ll be able to buy the 20-inch-by-24-inch film that the camera uses.

" I’d have to go digital. What would I do? " says Dorfman, whose Cambridge studio has hosted such well-known subjects as Julia Child and Allen Ginsberg.

Say it ain’t so, Elsa. Still, she may have no choice. Polaroid, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on October 12, is in deep trouble — and either it or whatever company moves in to pick up the pieces may decide to stop making the film, which is hardly a high-volume product. Says company spokesman Skip Colcord: " We’re looking at our entire portfolio and evaluating all the items. I don’t know how that particular item stacks up. "

The 200-pound camera that Dorfman rents from Polaroid had its genesis in 1976, when company founder Edwin Land wanted a spectacular product to show off at a shareholders’ meeting. Peter Bass, now president of the Polaroid Retirees Association, had about two weeks to produce two cameras — a 20-by-24 unit and an even bigger camera that shoots 40-inch-by-80-inch film, which was in residence at the Museum of Fine Arts for 17 years. " We worked like hell to get ready, " Bass recalls.

The camera that Dorfman uses — which is actually third-generation technology — was one of five made by Bass in 1978. According to Dorfman’s Web site, www.elsa.photo.net, hers is one of six such cameras in the world. But Bass believes that two were made in addition to the five that he built. " It’s a product where the publicity they get is great because the quality is fantastic, " says Bass, who provided technical assistance when Ansel Adams used one of the cameras to photograph Jimmy Carter, and who once spent two weeks in Saudi Arabia helping to photograph members of the royal family.

For now, Dorfman is stockpiling the film, which costs $2000 for just 30 photos’ worth; Calumet Photographic, in East Cambridge, is keeping it refrigerated for her. Even under optimum conditions, though, the film will stay fresh for only about six months. So Dorfman is getting ready for the possibility that she’ll have to move on.

" Every day, digital is improving, " she says. " I think I have enough of a reputation that digital companies would help me. " Still, she concedes that there would be " a huge difference — how it physically feels and everything. " She laments: " It wouldn’t have that funky Polaroid plastic color. And it wouldn’t have that three-dimensional quality of the print. "

But the most important ingredient in Dorfman’s Polaroids has always been Dorfman, not Polaroid — the way she puts her subjects at ease and catches them in candid, unguarded moments. That quality, presumably, would remain intact.

Issue Date: November 1 - 8, 2001