Polaroid Photographer Reveals How She Made Over $1,000 at Carnival
A polaroid photographer armed with an Intax Mini 11 made $1,111 at Notting Hill Carnival in London by selling her prints.
Amma Antwi, known as DSG, brought in her best friend who was wearing a top with the prices listed: £5 ($6.18) for one or £10 ($12.37) for three.
@itsthatdarkskingirl I felt like I was on the apprentice 😂 #nottinghillcarnival #onthisday #instaxmini11 #fujifilm #selfportraitideas #shakeitlikeapolaroidpicture ♬ Bad Gyalz – Nia Archives
Antwi had a megaphone as she took an old-fashioned approach to selling services in a gambit that ultimately proved extremely popular.
Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival takes place each August in West London, attracting some two million people it is one of the largest street festivals in the world.
Antwi tells the Daily Mail that she sold 200 polaroids at the event, netting $1,113 (£900) which left her a profit of $708 (£573) after accounting for the start-up costs (camera, film, and card reader).
“I love Notting Hill Carnival and as I have recently started doing photography I wanted a way to strengthen these skills but also network and speak to people I may not get to speak to every day,” says Antwi.
“As much as I wanted to use my digital camera, I thought using my Polaroid would be the golden touch…I had to go up to people and sell and with this, I had to handle a lot of rejection too,” she continues.
“I knew I was going to get rejected. It was understandable. But I was ready for it. The first person I asked I got rejected by but this gave me that rush to sell and get a yes. I thought if I got nos it wasn’t a bad thing, I saw it as redirection.”
Antwi was accepting both card and cash payments during the two-day festival and after this year’s success, she’s planning to do it again at next year’s carnival, and might even take her business stateside for the Labor Day celebrations in New York.
“I’d love to get a partnership with Polaroid or Instax and take the business global,” she says. “We could then take the business to places like Brazil. There are so many carnivals in the world. They haven’t got back to me yet [these companies] but we’re pushing for it and I’m ambitious.”
More of Antwi’s work can be found on her TikTok and Instagram.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
