Polaroid-Style Prints for a Modern Client

Sponsored by Preservation & Creation

In today’s digital photography market, the demand for printing, album and book making is still high. Print products have become more customized, allowing photographers to leave their own personal touch on keepsakes. Enter Preservation & Creation.

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“I equate prints like these to listening to my favorite album on vinyl,” says Jacob Murphy, founder and photographer at JBM Photography—a San Francisco- and Brooklyn-based team of wedding photojournalists—of his recent print purchase at Preservation & Creation. “It adds to the experience.”

Journal prints featuring the work of JBM Photography / © JBM Photography

The prints he’s referring to are the company’s Journal Prints, which pack a powerful twofold punch. In addition to being Polaroid-style prints—complete with the instant-film look and matte finish, along with the option for adding text to the bottom—a percentage of every purchase goes toward funding a water project in an impoverished community.

Preservation & Creation, founded in 2014, is the brainchild of a group of creative thinkers with backgrounds in photography, design and marketing who banded together with one common mission in mind: “to preserve and inspire life with purpose.”

One way the founders of Preservation & Creation derive purpose from their work is through their alignment with non-profit organizations like Living Water International, a charity they have been donating to long before the company was forged. The second way is through preserving memories that may otherwise exist only in cyberspace.

“Having a tangible print in today’s digital world is an honor and a privilege,” Murphy says. As the founding photographer of JBM, Murphy understands the synergy required for beauty and photography to be in perfect balance, and uses this mindset to capture a couple’s love, quirkiness and individual taste through stunning wedding, engagement and family albums. But while there are more images online now than ever before, the creative energy it takes to preserve a moment in a photograph remains largely unseen without the addition of a tangible keepsake, like a Journal Print or a Hardcover Photo Book.

© JBM Photography

© JBM Photography

“I always encourage my clients to order prints because sitting down and looking through a physical album is a more intimate experience than scrolling through a gallery on a computer,” Murphy says. “We have enough computer time in our lives already.”

As a photographer who has a background in printing, quality is also important to Murphy. “I put a lot of work into my post-production. Tweaking temperature and tint is a major part of that effort,” he says. “It’s refreshing to see the colors that I envisioned come through in the finished Preservation & Creation product.” In addition, “I love the paper,” he says. “It feels archival; thick but not card stock-y; matte but without losing details and contrast.” Prints ordered through Preservation & Creation can be purchased with a Bastrop Wood Block photo holder—made from the reclaimed wood burned during the Bastrop County Complex fire in Texas—and come wrapped in velum, which, Murphy notes, is a “very classy touch.”

© JBM Photography

The clients that order prints from Murphy are passionate about print, he says, so it’s important for him to be able to provide a service like Preservation & Creation. But it’s equally important that he doesn’t add to his workload. “Uploading the photos is fast and easy. The editing, cropping and manipulation of the images through the website moves quickly and makes sense,” he explains. “Preservation & Creation prints are a great fit aesthetically for my clients’ style: vintage, clean, and high quality.”