I’m a vintage camera lover, but I’ll be the first to admit that there are a lot of pieces out there that are going to take hundreds or thousands of dollars in parts and reconstruction to get back to picture-takin’ shape. Yet you can pick them up at camera stores and estate sales for a song. They can be plain decoration, sure, but you could also do what this guy has done, and make lamps out of them.
Yes, these old Polaroids (and presumably any with a suitable bellows element) have been repurposed by Etsy artisan Dan Riordan into sweet lamps by… as far as I can tell, just sticking an LED in there. Of course you probably have to baffle the LED so it illuminates evenly, and work out the wiring in the back, but that’s pretty much it. He’s selling them for $150 or so.
If you have a camera lying around that may serve this purpose, it could make for a nice Sunday afternoon project. That’s pretty much your only choice since Riordan’s C.E. Cork Lighting Co. store on Etsy is totally out of stock. So either lurk at the store (more lamps coming later) or make your own. I’m good either way, mine are probably going to just stay on the shelves and get dusty.