In 2010, the founders of the social media platform Instagram deliberately chose a square 1:1 ratio for their platform’s images as an homage to Polaroid photos. And even after popular photography swung toward the digital realm in the early 21st century, the square ratio of Polaroid photos remained immediately recognizable as a beloved symbol of early instant amateur photography. They experienced a second wave of blockbuster sales with the debut of Polaroid instant color film in 1963. Polaroid’s “Land” cameras, with their square black and white “instant” photographs, became a spectacular consumer hit and pop culture sensation. ![]() He spent the next four years perfecting an “instant camera” that could produce photographs that would self-develop in 60 seconds. In 1943, after he snapped a photograph of his family on vacation, Land’s three-year-old daughter asked why she couldn’t see the photograph right away. Edwin Land, as featured on the Octocover of Life magazin After the war, Land continued serving as a scientific advisor to the federal government, and helped develop the cameras used in the Cold War-era U-2 aerial surveillance system. military, including polarized sunglasses, ski goggles, dark-vision goggles, and stereoscopic (3-D) lenses. During World War II, Polaroid designed and manufactured several types of specialty lenses for the U.S. ![]() In 1937, Land and Wheelwright changed the name of their venture to Polaroid. Long fascinated by the uses of polarized light, Land and his former professor George Wheelwright III established Land-Wheelwright laboratories in Boston where they manufactured polarized film and lenses. He then dropped out to pursue what he described as “more practical” applications of physics and chemistry. Land, a self-taught inventor and co-founder of Polaroid, revolutionized the way the world experienced photography.Īfter graduating from the Norwich Free Academy in southeastern Connecticut (which later named their library after this famous alumnus), Land attended Harvard University for one year. The man who was to change all that, Edward Land, was born in Bridgeport today in 1909. If you have any questions or concerns about the Polaroid Snap or instant cameras in general, let us know below.For more than a century after practical photography was invented in 1839, all photographers had to wait to see the pictures they had taken until the images had gone through a lengthy, chemical developing process.
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