In case you missed the previous posts, we are celebrating the Polaroid camera with the “Polaroids of May”.

As part of the Polaroid celebration, I am planning a blog post for each Wednesday (previous posts are “Featured” below), AND, I am also posting a 27-day “grid” over on Instagram that is inspired by this vintage camera. I posted the first piece of the “grid” on Monday (May 4).

I hope you will check it out because it’s a bit like watching a Polaroid coming to life. But, for now, let’s talk about how the idea of an instant camera and film became a reality.

Creating the Polaroid

Last week, I mentioned that Edwin Land and the Polaroid Corporation were involved in US government projects during World War II. When I say “involved”, I mean a substantial portion (estimated over 80%) of Polaroid’s corporate earnings were a direct result of these projects.

As World War II ended, however, the loss of income required a shift of business and downsizing of staff in order to continue the growing company. Reading between the lines, I think this downsizing played a large part in this next step of the Corporation.

The story is that Land was on vacation in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his family. Land and his young daughter went for a walk one day and Land brought along his Rolleiflex camera. His daughter asked why she was unable to see the pictures immediately, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Land immediately began working on plans to create a camera that would include its own darkroom as it were. The chemicals required to develop the image would be included in the film packet… but how would those chemicals be distributed on the film itself not only creating a negative, but also a positive photographic image?

In the following years, there was much secrecy, experimentation, and a whole lot of documentation. There were notes referred to as the SX-70* Diary that were written by the scientists who worked on the camera. These notes are interesting behind-the-scene documentation that records just how novel this idea really was.

In 1947, the instant camera was unveiled to the public. Can you imagine seeing a photo developed in under a minute for the first time? Amazing. I bet the marketing department just sat back and watched that little camera pretty much marketing itself.

* TRIVIA TIME

Here are two bits of trivia for you, plus a bonus.

The SX-70 was named because:

1. the last two war-time projects Land worked on were, you guessed it, SX-68 and SX-69, (Aren’t you glad? Seriously, the SX-27 just doesn’t have the same ring as SX-70.) and

2. in case you were wondering, the SX stands for “Special Experiment”.

Bonus Trivia: The first images were NOT the color images we generally associate with Polaroid photographs. Instead, they were yellow or sepia-toned. One “failed” experiment even resulted in a blue and white toned image.

One More Thing…

I hope you will come back next Wednesday when we wrap this series and put a bow on it.

And, don’t forget to visit me on Instagram to see the grid slowly develop - just like a Polaroid.

SOURCES:

American Chemical Society

Wikipedia