Tag:Polaroid
I still remember the times during my studies of media technology when I dreamed of someday owning a Leica camera. Although I was happy with the Nikon F2 SLR and Nikon 24mm f/2.8 setup I used during the photography classes I took at university, I kept longing for more. A close friend and I spent many nights debating used camera options available at local Leica dealers but always decided to stay away from it. To be completely honest, we dreamed mostly […]
As of September 13th 2017, The Impossible Project is called Polaroid Originals. Apparently the company’s largest shareholder acquired the Polaroid brand and corresponding intellectual property. That seems fitting since the 2008 founded company practically saved Polaroid instant photography. After Polaroid stopped producing instant film, The Impossible Project stepped up to produce new film material. They acquired a legacy Polaroid factory and developed new instant film materials for vintage Polaroid camera models. In addition to the Impossible Instant Lab (allowing Polaroid instant photos […]
In late 2016 Leica introduced an instant camera, called Leica Sofort. It utilises Fujifilm Instax Mini instant film material and might prove to be another great addition to the recent instant film revival by companies such as Impossible Project, who just introduced their first analog instant camera after selling refurbished Polaroid cameras for many years. Over the past years I used instant cameras quite a bit and experimented with the Impossible Project Instant Lab and their polaroid compatible film material […]
In April 2016 The Impossible Project announced their first analog instant camera for Polaroid instant film. The company has been around for a few years and basically saved Polaroid instant film from getting extinct. They started out by repairing and selling used Polaroid cameras and old film material and eventually bought an old Polaroid factory and started to produce their own instant film. As you may know, I followed the company quite closely and tried out their Impossible Instant Lab among many […]
Some insights in how “The Impossible Project” came to be… Conceived at the closing party of the last Polaroid factory, The Impossible Project completely re-invented the process of creating instant film specifically for Polaroid cameras. A daunting task for sure, but one that they’ve been at since 2008. More about my experiences with their products and my Polaroid SX-70 camera can be found in previous posts.
Today I started gluing recently produced instant photos to the wall… So, here’s the first iteration of a personal Polaroid gallery. Since we needed to cover some boreholes, we started with a rectangle. Let’s see where it might end. I used tesa Tack, double-sided adhesive pads, to fix the photos to the wall. Despite all the negative comments on Amazon, they seem to be strong enough to hold the photos on my wall so far (no wall paper, I might add).
Since my bedroom wall is supposed to be decorated with Polaroid instant photos, I spent an evening with my Impossible Instant Lab, developing a series of photos with an iPhone 5 and the Impossible iOS App. The result being a bunch of color and black & white photos soon to be displayed in my personal little art gallery. It comes at a price, though. 8 instant photos produced with Impossible Instant film sum up to 20 €, not considering the […]
Polaroid released its cool cam in 1988. It’s basically a pimped Polaroid 600 with fancy neon colours. More infos can be found in the Impossible Project – Camera Museum.
I just recently read Christopher Bonanos’ Instant – The Story of Polaroid in a special limited edition published by Princeton Architectural Press, October 2012. On the back of the book it says: “Edwin Land was one of Steve Jobs’s first heroes, and this book shows why. He created a startup in a garage that grew into a company that stood at the intersection of creativity and technology. This is a fascinating saga, both inspiring and cautionary, about innovation and visionary leadership.” – […]
The Impossible Project: Bringing back Polaroid (Wired UK)
Florian Kaps is on a mission to rescue instant film. So he has taken over an abandoned Polaroid factory in Holland… and rebooted it
An article from 2009 about The Impossible Project in Wired UK with some details on their motivation, their inspiration by Edwin H. Land and their mission to save Polaroid instant photography from extinction. They startet their project in 2008. It’s 2014 and they are still around, continuously improving their film material. So for now, they succeeded.
