I have been wanting photo albums for my Fuji Instax wide pictures, ever since I got my camera in 2011. When deciding what instax instant camera I wanted back then, I had the option of the Wide or the Mini. I’m pretty sure I already had a Polaroid Pogo printer at that point, so the business card sized instants didn’t appeal as much. I liked the larger size of the Wide, but I also liked that they were landscape frame, with the wider border on the bottom, much like the Polaroid 600 film. There was something about that portrait, vertical (super tall and narrow) frame of the mini that I don’t like as much. Well, pretty quickly after I got my wide, it became apparent that the Instax Mini is actually the camera that has taken off in popularity. There are soooo many albums and cute products for the Minis. You can even buy the film and cameras at big box stores just about everywhere. I pinned an album or two for the Wide on pinterest, and by the time I went to purchase them they were all sold out, and haven’t restocked them in years since. Other albums marketed for Instax Wide online are not what they advertise. If you read the comments and reviews people will say that the album slots are actually way too big, and that they are just selling them as albums for Instax Wide, but they were not made for that.
Unlike with my huge collection of Polaroid instant film pictures (all dated, additional info on back, and all kept together in the same spot) my Instax pictures have just been floating around, undocumented, and dispersed randomly throughout the house (one in a pile of mail, one on the mantel, 4 on the refrigerator, etc.). It’s pretty disheartening, and I know I am to blame because I could just throw them in with my Polaroids, but I feel like the disorganization from the get-go set a standard, and then I used the excuse of not having an album to let it continue. The problem of my Instax Wide pictures laying about everywhere has honestly made me not really want to take pictures with it because they’ll probably just get lost anyway.
Welllll, this weekend I was in an Urban Outfitters and looked at the section for Fuji products and started my tradition of bemoaning that there are tons of cute albums for the Minis, but none for the…wait, what?!? lo and behold! There WERE albums for the Wide. $12! I snapped up 3! They had two styles, a hot pink one (if I remember correctly) and the black and white graph scribble style that honestly couldn’t be more perfect if it had been designed for me in mind. Each album holds 40 pictures (one can fit into the cover display as well). Now that I am home, I kind of wish I had purchased a couple more because as hard as it was to buy them before, I am guessing it will happen again shortly. Bad news is that apparently they are an in-store only product, and not on their website. I am not even going to go to that place, where with my luck the Wide film will be discontinued.
I AM SO EXCITED to finally have these albums made specifically for the Fuji Instax Wide pictures. Just gathering random pictures from here and there throughout the house I’ve already filled one album. I want to take new pictures too! Now I want to clear off my messy coffee table to have my albums displayed there, I’m THAT EXCITED AND MOTIVATED.
An unexpected bonus is that while filling the albums I realized the layout is sort of diptych. I was arranging and rearranging for themes and pieces that go well together – pictures that maybe weren’t necessarily taken together, of the same subject matter, or meant to go together, but work well facing each other. For example the pictures above (might be hard to see with reflections on the album pages) a winter scene and a similar monochromatic geometric collection of shapes, and a photograph of a tree covered with a rainbow of leaves changing color next to a garland display I made of fall leaves also in a rainbow of colors.
If you are looking for an album to hold your Fuji Instax Wide pictures, hurry over to your nearest Urban Outfitters now.
