The Story of Polaroid
Polaroid was the first manufacturer of instant cameras and film. They were so popular that we tend to call every instant camera “a Polaroid” even today. However, the company went from an industry giant to bankruptcy but then raised from the ashes
Polaroid was founded by Edwin H. Land and his Harward physics instructor George W. Wheelwright III. They first successfully developed polarizing filters for sunglasses and photographic filters. After few years, Land obtained funding from a series of Wall Street investors for further expansion. And so, Polaroid as a company was founded in 1937, but the famous camera hadn’t arrived until a decade later.
Land got an idea for the camera after his daughter asked why she could not see the picture he’d just taken of her with a Rolleiflex camera. This sparked an idea in his mind, and in 1947, the prototype Polaroid instant camera was officially demonstrated to the Optical Society of America. A whole darkroom process could fit inside a camera, so it was something completely new and intriguing for everyone.
Polaroid Model 95 was the first camera that went for up sale. It was in 1948, and the first batch of 60 sold out the same day. The first Polaroid cameras were big and cumbersome, but this changed over the next few decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, they became smaller and improved, they keep the affordable price, so they got even more popular. The company introduced the first color film in the Colorpack camera in 1963, and the Swinger in 1965 camera which was even cheaper than the rest of the models. In the 1970s, Polaroid cameras were all the rage. Andy Warhol was one of the artists famous for using them, and he had multiple pieces. Last year, his Polaroid SX-70 scored $13,750 in an auction.
Today, Polaroid Originals produces instant cameras, film, pocket printers, and those weird Polaroid Lab phone photo scanners. It appears that the company manages to follow trends and fulfill its audience’s expectations. If Land and Wheelwright were alive today, I believe they would be happy to see that their legacy lives on.