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Polaroid instant film

Edwin Land presenting a new Polaroid to the press. Photo Bernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Polaroid instant film

14 traced influences · 4 sources

dig Polaroid instant film

What it took directly

  1. statedPolaroid instant photography took from a question from Edwin Land's three-year-old daughter, Jennifer, in Santa Fe in 1943"One day when we were vacationing in Santa Fe in 1943 my daughter, Jennifer, who was then 3, asked me why she could not see the picture I had just taken of her." Edwin Land's own account, quoted by Harry McCracken, Technologizer (June 8, 2011)
  2. documentedThe SX-70's name took from the code name of Land's first instant-camera project, his seventieth special experiment"Land gave the project to build the world’s first instant camera the code name SX-70, indicating that it was his seventieth special experiment." Harry McCracken, Technologizer (June 8, 2011)
  3. statedThe SX-70's folding body took from Alfred Bellows' full-scale layout of Land's folded-mirror idea"And the full-scale layout worked. Thus was born the SX-70 as it eventually came to market." Alfred Bellows, from his memoir, quoted by Joaquín de Prada, OpenSX70 ("Who designed the SX-70?", August 2021)
  4. statedThe Impossible Project's film took from the last Polaroid instant-film factory, in Enschede, the Netherlands"Florian 'Doc' Kaps and André Bosman meet at the closing party of the Polaroid factory in Enschede, in The Netherlands, and devise a plan to save Polaroid-format instant photography." Impossible (The Impossible Project), company history timeline

What it learned to do

  1. statedThe SX-70's industrial design learned from Jim Connor of Henry Dreyfuss Associates"The first fully developed camera design was styled with the help of Jim Connor of Henry Dreyfuss Associates, the industrial design firm in NYC that had styled all telephones of that time" Alfred Bellows, quoted by Joaquín de Prada, OpenSX70 (August 2021)
  2. statedThe SX-70 project learned from Edwin Land, who orchestrated every field of it"Yet one person, knowledgeable in every field involved, orchestrated this endeavor by challenging the available technology and the ingenuity of the many persons involved and expanding the boundaries of both. That person was Dr. Edwin H. Land." Richard Wareham, a key contributor to the SX-70's design, in a 1994 Optics & Photonics News special issue, quoted by Technologizer (June 8, 2011)
  3. documentedThe SX-70's prototypes learned from Len Dionne's model shop"Len was the wizzard behind all those prototypes and early tests." Joaquín de Prada, OpenSX70 (August 2021)
  4. statedThe SX-70's focusing screen learned from Land's wish that the image come out of a fog, the way the print develops"Dr. Land designed the camera so the image would appear out of a fog and come into sharp focus as the focus wheel was turned. He wanted to replicate how the image would emerge on the actual film as it was developing." Phil Baker, who ran Polaroid's test lab at launch (identified by Technologizer), in a first-person account quoted by OpenSX70 (August 2021)
  5. statedThe Impossible Project's film learned from old Agfa technology, used to imitate Polaroid's chemistry"using old Agfa technology to simulate Polaroid's chemistry and re-establish the production of Polaroid-format instant film." Impossible (The Impossible Project), company history timeline

The tradition it sits in

  1. documentedThe SX-70 comes from Polaroid's peel-apart Land Cameras, back to the 1947 Model 95"In 1972, instant photography was no longer a novelty: the world had been introduced to it in 1947 when Polaroid co-founder Edwin H. Land unveiled the Model 95, the company’s first camera." Harry McCracken, Technologizer (June 8, 2011)
  2. documentedThe Impossible Project comes from Edwin Land's rule: nothing unless it is "manifestly important and nearly impossible""The Impossible Project took its name from a quote by Edwin Land, the man credited with the invention of instant photography. "Don't undertake a project", Land once said, "unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible"." Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian (5 April 2010)

Where the whole form comes from

  1. statedThe SX-70 comes from the camera Land described in 1944: look, press, and a dry colour print comes out"We were standing there …back in 1944, and he said “You know I can imagine a camera that is simple and easy to use.  You simply look through the viewfinder and compose your picture and push the shutter release and out comes the finished dry photograph in full color." Bill McCune, later Polaroid's president, recalling Land, quoted by Technologizer (June 8, 2011)
  2. documentedPolaroid comes from the first synthetic light-polarizing material, which Land invented at nineteen"In Land’s case, the stuff that he left school to make was the first synthetic material capable of polarizing light, which he invented at the age of nineteen." Harry McCracken, Technologizer (June 8, 2011)
  3. inferredThe SX-70 comes from Jennifer Land's 1943 question, thirty years on"Well, that was SX-70 but that was about 30 years later." inferred — Land ties Jennifer's question to his first instant camera, and Bill McCune ties Land's 1944 description to the SX-70; that the SX-70 answers the same question is our reading of the two accounts

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