Shooting glitz with a Polaroid, Jeremy Kosta is gracious in a galling trade

Pink hues light the room where singer Missy Elliot sways to hip-hop music with Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas. Hundreds of models and industry executives snack on cupcakes while sipping from tiny pink soda cans.

It’s the night before the start of New York’s convention of beauty and glamour, Fashion Week, and a party to launch a new energy drink is in full force. Dressed in an off-yellow seersucker jacket, a tall 29-year-old Houston native named Jeremy Kost mingles amid the steady roar of conversation. A clunky Polaroid camera around his neck gives him the look of a 1960s tourist in Europe as he glances around the room for a celebrity or model to point his lens at.

“If you persist, even though it’s the right time to get a picture, you’ve blown your respect level 400 percent” and then “you become a nuisance,” Kost explained as he contemplated approaching actress Lindsay Lohan, who was deep into a chat with friends.

In a celebrity-driven society, where the latest picture of Britney, Brad or Angelina can earn a photographer thousands of dollars from a supermarket tabloid, one amateur photographer has cultivated a reputation as an unassuming “anti-paparazzo” and has won remarkable access with the help of an unlikely tool.

Jeremy Kost’s adventures began in 2003 when he had a day job marketing antiques. He was living in Washington with his parents. One weekend, while visiting friends in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood, his host left for a night job at a local bar. A Polaroid camera was hanging on the wall so Kost decided to borrow it for the evening.

“Since I didn’t really know anyone in New York at the time, the camera served as a sort of social catalyst,” Kost recalled with a grin. He found that he made friends wherever he snapped photos. One night, after taking a picture of the actress Pamela Anderson, the well-known fashion photographer David LaChappelle had a look at Kost’s work and encouraged him to take his nightlife hobby more seriously. That was all Kost needed to make a permanent move to New York.

Kost has not put his borrowed Polaroid down since. His instincts and respect for privacy have helped cultivate warm relationships with a number of celebrities, although he acknowledges he’s been turned down his share of times, too.

But the un-intimidating camera has earned him access to some of New York’s most exclusive gatherings. Once inside an event, he prefers blending in and shooting Polaroid snapshots of celebrities as diverse as Uma Thurman and Usher. The photos reveal candid, relaxed and silly moments, unlike the staged, flash-bulb displays along the red carpet.

On the white space below each image, Kost writes captions like “Paris & her cell phone" or “Christina & her goldilocks” to commemorate the moment.

“It’s so much fun when Jeremy takes your picture with a Polaroid,” said model Theodora Richards, the daughter of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. “And the pictures are there in your hands.”

Kost has turned what used to be a way for making friends into a venture he calls Roidrage. His pictures have appeared in galleries and fashion magazines. He has also created a Web site, www.roidrage.com. Kost says his approach to celebrity “allows people to look at those moments that are treated like press and say they can be artistic, intimate and special."

It is an idea not lost on Barbara Hitchcock, a spokeswoman for Polaroid Corp. “Polaroid cameras are familiar American icons,” she said. ”Celebrities, politicians, presidents and their first ladies have been photographed with Polaroid cameras, a very reassuring process since everyone sees the final photograph right after the shot is snapped.”

Polaroid instant cameras were the invention of Polaroid founder Edward Land. In 1948, the first commercially available model, the Model 95, went on sale at Boston’s Jordan Marsh Department Store for $89.75. Over the years, as new technology emerged, the cost of the cameras went down, but the company, thanks to the digital revolution, experienced a slump that eventually led to its bankruptcy and an acquisition by the Petters Group in 2005.

Along the way, Polaroid earned “brand icon” status, according to author and branding consultant Karen Post of Tampa, Fla. But icon status is not enough to keep a product in demand.

“The younger set has no connection to the legacy of the brand,” Post said.

Still, at least for the mostly 20-something crowd at this Fashion Week party in New York, the Polaroid had grand appeal.

“Everybody does look good in Polaroids,” said the Manhattan socialite Tinsley Mortimer as she grooved to the beats of DJ Sky Nellar.

And Nellar added, “The Polaroid camera feels less threatening and invasive, especially when in the hands of such a creative individual like Jeremy.”

It was another party in New York City, the beat played on, and Jeremy Kost was there to capture it.

Email: jl2494@columbia.edu