The white walls of the Chinatown studio were covered with dozens and dozens of Polaroid-style instant photos, each one featuring a celebrity (or something akin to a celebrity) staring back into the camera. Below each stark image was an autograph from the featured luminary. It was quite a collection. One might even call Rick DeMint’s “Portroids” (short for “Polaroid Portraits”) solo exhibit an “impossible” collection, though that might be too much on point.
DeMint has been accosting and photographing celebrities for a decade (and doing so since around 2008 with a Polaroid Spectra camera). For him, it's not a profession; he just likes photography and celebrities and is so non-threatening that a shocking number of stars (among them: Zach Galifianakis, Katy Perry, Questlove, Elijah Woods and Joan Rivers) have stood still — even in the midst of some very busy activity — for him and then autographed their picture.

A look at part of the Rick DeMint show at The Impossible Place, taken with Google Glass.
The Impossible Project hosted the exhibit Thursday night in its own Impossible Project Space in downtown New York City. For the company, which began creating instant film for Polaroid Cameras in 2008 after Polaroid discontinued its manufacture, it was an opportunity to showcase its products: film for Polaroid SX-70 and 600 instant cameras and their new Impossible Instant Lab, a gadget that converts digital images from iPhone screens directly into Polaroid prints (see it in action in the video below). For DeMint, it was an opportunity to showcase something that clearly obsesses him and, maybe, use it as a launch pad for new projects.

In the rather small space, DeMint looked pretty much like everyone else in the room. The slight, bespectacled guy with tousled blonde hair stood off to the side. A bag hooked over his shoulder held his ever-present Polaroid camera, loaded with Impossible Project film.
Even though DeMint’s been doing this for a decade, he is not a photographer by trade. He works in finance. He collects his images on the streets, behind stages, and outside the stage doors of New York. He didn’t come across as the least bit aggressive, something one would expect of such a photographer. But I could see that opportunistic streak in him.
He told me a book deal might be in the offing and, as we parted, he asked me, naturally, if he could take my picture and sign the still undeveloped print. It can take 15 minutes or more (depending on if it’s color or black and white) for an image to fully appear. Doing so seems like a leap of faith. I had no idea how I looked in the photo, nor, I guess, did DeMint. He knew what he saw through the lens, but the combination of the classic, analog camera and the quirky Impossible Project film produce what could best be described at somewhat other-worldly-images.
Then it hit me: DeMint is so charming and unassuming that celebrities actually sign the photos without likely ever seeing the final photos, which also means those of us at the “Portroid” show were seeing photos most of the accommodating celebrities have probably never seen.
Above is my entire conversation with DeMint and a look at the exhibit, filmed with Google Glass. A word of caution: the room was loud (there was a DJ), so you may want to wear headphones to hear the whole conversation.
Image: Mashable