The Polaroid Book: Selections From The Polaroid Collections Of Photography

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This new instant camera was revolutionary: bringing the magic of creating a photograph right in front of your eyes to the world for the first time. Get your copy of the photobook and explore the beautifully curated pages, featuring some of the most famous photographers in history, and most exciting new voices in Polaroid photography today.

There are many books and articles written about the history of Polaroid and its legendary founder Edwin Land, and my short introduction is not meant to be a match for them. Barbara Hitchcock is the director of cultural affairs for the Polaroid Corporation in Waltham, Massachusetts. This is where the name Polaroid comes from and the invention’s commercialization is what the company was focused on in its first years after its founding in 1937.They were sitting at home with no pictures to look at as a camera like this (and all cameras made at the time) required developing the pictures in a darkroom lab, a process that takes at least a few days and lots of specialized chemistry and equipment. Instead, I’d love to share the parts of the story that captured the hearts and minds of myself and our new team at Polaroid: the reason we continue to work hard at Polaroid now, eighty-three years after the company was founded. This is when the most iconic Polaroid format was born, the one I was holding in my hands in the gallery in New York, taking it all in. After a series of bankruptcies between 2001 and 2008, and as digital photography took hold, it looked like Polaroid would stop making its iconic film forever, and history would close this chapter in history.

Brimming with all the warmth and nostalgia of a family album, this ode to the instant camera presents hundreds of images from the Polaroid Corporation’s own collection. Altogether it paints a sincere picture of a brand that, despite bankruptcies and struggles against the tide of digital photography, remains a beacon in the worlds of image making and pop culture. The Polaroid Corporation’s photography collection is the greatest portfolio of Polaroid images in the world. By 1972, Land and his team at Polaroid transformed instant photography products from the initially giant and heavy cameras that required peel-apart film to the now legendary, incredibly slim SX70 camera that used integral film with no need for peeling anything apart.Begun by Polaroid founder Edwin Land and photographer Ansel Adams, the collection now includes some 23,000 images by hundreds of photographers throughout the world, including pieces by the likes of David Hockney, Andy Warhol, and Jeanloup Sieff.

In true Edwin Land style, he thought deeply, recruited the best scientists to the project, and worked day and night until the first instant photo product from Polaroid was launched in 1948. He was relentless in his pursuit of answering questions and inventing ways the world could be better.Even in the 2010s, at a time when Polaroid instant photography was at its all-time low, brand love and recognition was still as high as ever.

In fact, it was such a winning formula that it inspired another famous company visionary at Apple, Steve Jobs, who baked their version—“the intersection of liberal arts and technology”—deep into the values of his company as well. The book showcases portraits of leading visual artists who often experimented with the medium themselves, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and perhaps the best known proponent of Polaroid photography, Andy Warhol.The following is an excerpt from the new photobook, Polaroid Now, The History and Future of Polaroid Photography, by Steven Crist, with contributions from Polaroid CEO, Oskar Smolokowski. For keen fans eager to dig deeper into the history, the book comprises images that give an insight into manufacturing, advertising and the evolution of the camera range over the years. The heroes came from where you would least expect them—a spider eye PhD named Florian “Doc” Kaps, and his family and friends, managed to purchase the last factory, literally days before it was scheduled for scrapping.