Instant Photography
May 16th, 2008
“Shake it like a Polaroid picture”… something that is being forgotten by more and more people today. Instant photography was at once considered the wave of the future. Today, digital cameras have been outselling film for a number of years now. You can still purchase a Polaroid camera for around $30 to $40, but don’t count on the film being available for very much longer. Polaroid recently announced that they would discontinue film production and close four U.S. factories.
About 60 years ago, Polaroid was towards the peak of its success. Edwin Land released his original “Land Camera” and instant film that developed in less than a minute. The photographic medium was used by some of the most famous name fine art photographers such as Ansel Adams, David Hockney and Robert Rauschenberg. Polaroid even seemed to have won the battle over the instant camera market with Kodak towards the late 1970s. Unfortunately, as time went by, new technologies appeared on the market. Polaroid was late trying to keep up with the technology, and suffered many losses. In 2001, Polaroid filed bankruptcy and is now owned by Petters Group Worldwide. Today they manufacture digital cameras and video equipment. Below is a quick slide show presentation depicting the history of instant photography.
