When I asked my mother what she wanted for Christmas this year, she answered: “The Best of Bread album.” Bread, if you’re wondering, was a pop-rock band in the late sixties and early seventies. Their major claim to fame was two hit singles entitled “It Don’t Matter to Me” and “Make It With You.” On Thanksgiving, she asked me to take a “few Polaroids” of the family with my Canon XSI. The point, if you’re still searching for one, is that the likelihood of my buying a Bread album is about the same as the likelihood of my taking a Polaroid with my XSI. In fact, the likelihood of taking a Polaroid with Polaroid film is diminishing exponentially as this month winds down, being that December marks the final month of the company’s last production year.

Of course my mother didn’t know that when she asked me to produce instant pictures on a moment’s whim. But can you blame her for using terms like “album” and “Polaroid” when she should have said “CD” or “photograph”? The only thing I blame my mother for is listening to Bread… As for her inaccurate colloquialisms; words like “album” and “Polaroid” are cultural touchstones. They’re part of a vernacular that will most likely outlive not only my mother’s Baby Boomer generation, but my own. We’ve already seen the Polaroid name lauded in the chorus of OutKast’s catchy tune “Hey Ya,” which instructs people to shake their bodies like Polaroid pictures. You don’t get any more infamous than that…

And no matter its cultural significance, Polaroids, like albums, will be a technology of the past come January 2009. Though the company’s white-bordered prints will be on sale through next year, it will stop making instant film by December 31, 2008. The impact of the company’s decision to end production, which was heard most volubly in the art world, beginning some months ago, was also echoed in the commercial blogosphere on message boards and in “Save Polaroid” campaigns on Facebook along with other social networking sites. The subject of many art projects and a staple in commercial photography, Polaroid film was a quick way—and often the only way—to test the shooting environment. And in creating an on-site demand, you could even argue that it initiated a digital market.

I thought that Polaroid deserved more than just a cameo in the movie “Memento” or a name dropping by my mother to eulogize its departure. It has influenced our businesses and our personal tastes, and we should recognize its legacy—our roots.

How did you use Polaroid film—did you create unique Polaroid or Emotion transfers? Do you have an altered SX-70 image or just a favorite print that marks a particular time in your life? Did you use the positive/negative type of Polaroid film and print from the negatives? Are you a 20×24, 8×10, or 4×5 shooter? Let me know by commenting to this blog, or emailing me at tara.propper@cygnuspub.com.

Here we find ourselves once more, at the end of another megapixel-filled year, hoping that Santa (or whatever gift-bearing mascot or family member you choose to affiliate with) will stuff our stockings with digital frames, rechargeable batteries—maybe even the new Nikon D3X (I’m not holding my breath on that one, though maybe my husband actually does read my blogs like he says he does).

It’s been a challenging year, and rough times may still be ahead for many: We’ve officially been notified that we are indeed mired in a recession, and many around us have lost their jobs, tapped into their dwindling 401Ks, and been forced to cut back all around. In the spirit of the season and in an attempt to spread a little humor and good cheer during these difficult times, I leave you with my top 5 photo-related stories of 2008, stories that caught my attention either because of their inspirational nature or because of their inherent inanity or bizarreness.

5. Jill Greenberg, meet John McCain: The avant-garde New York City photographer made an international name for herself by manipulating photos of the Republican presidential candidate originally shot for “The Atlantic” magazine, with the intention to cast him in as unflattering a light as possible (and considering he most closely resembled the craggy-faced Emperor from “Star Wars,” it appears Greenberg fulfilled her mission). Whether you sided with Greenberg on the platform of free speech or rebuked her for unethical behavior unbefitting a professional photographer, everyone can agree that it resulted in some of the more passionate posts in the blogging community we’ve seen in a while—and passion in the photography industry is just what we need right now.

4. As homo sapiens, we tend to carry a bit of species-specific narcissism. But National Geographic’s Best Animal Wildlife Photos of 2008 reminded us of how dangerous and beautiful our creature companions can be—and that we share this planet with them.

3. You can mash them, dice them, bake them, even cut them into crinkles and fry them—but 2008 was declared the International Year of the Potato by the United Nations, so it naturally followed that there be a photo contest to document this titillating tuber.

2. Who can forget that iconic 1945 WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt of a nurse being swept off her feet in Times Square by a sailor right after the surrender of Japan? Well, the Navy didn’t forget, honoring the young woman in the photo (the now-90-year-old Edith Shain) this past Veterans Day.

1.After the public outcry that took Annie Liebovitz to task for provocatively draping a nearly nude Miley Cyrus in nothing but a blanket for her Vanity Fair shoot, the teen phenom recently came out and said that she’d “love” to work with the “amazing” photographer again. No hard feelings, I guess—and who am I to argue with Hannah Montana?