Every day, the Toronto Star photography department looks to engage its readers with fresh, compelling and innovative applications of the ever evolving process of photography.

When the request came from the Life section to provide photos for a prom feature, we decided to do something different. We chose to return to a classic medium, the 4x5 negative.

In truth, this was our back-up plan.

In late April, Star visual editor Taras Slawnych assigned me to produce a series of 4x5 Polaroids that featured a graduating high school class on prom night.

With Polaroid film long discontinued, getting the film itself posed a serious challenge.

I sourced 40 sheets of black and white Polaroid film, which I bought at an exorbitant price and then tested. The film had expired in 2007 and was useless to me. Dry development pods had robbed the endangered prints of their ability to develop after exposure.

It was time for Plan B.

With the objective of producing a classic image, I offered to shoot the 4x5 negatives on location at the Paradise Banquet Hall in Vaughan where Runnymede Collegiate Institute was having its prom. I then processed the film and printed it back in my custom darkroom in Leslieville.

You can see the results in this photo gallery and in Saturday’s Life section in the Toronto Star.

We hope you enjoy the photographs and our return to a medium that this department practised in the decades before digital took over.