“Coast to Coast” is a work in the form of a book. It uses images to describe the mechanical process behind the development of an instant photograph—that moment between pressing the shutter button and the camera producing a blank image that gradually reveals the subject being photographed.

This series of photographs was taken in 2005 during a road trip from Boston to San Francisco and back to Boston with photographer Vincent Chenet. On that trip, I purchased a discounted stock of expired Polaroids, as the company had gone bankrupt in 2001. An expired Polaroid is characterized by the drying out of the developer, which is stored on the left side of the image. When the photo is taken, two rollers squeeze this pocket, releasing the developer, which spreads across the light-sensitive surface to develop the photograph. Consequently, if there is not enough developer, the image remains incomplete.

This book presents a series of images taken at the time, organized according to their stage of development. It begins with a blank Polaroid and ends with a fully developed image. Designed as a flipbook, it can be viewed in the same amount of time it takes the camera to produce an image.

Through interventions by the press operators during the printing of the cover — such as shutting off the water supply to each blanket in turn, interrupting the various ink feeds before reactivating them, or shifting the printing plates — each copy is unique and reflects the various chemical alterations in the Polaroids reproduced in the book.