"Many of my most successful photographs from the 1950’s onward have been made on Polaroid film. One look at the tonal quality of the print I have achieved should convince the uninitiated of the truly superior quality of Polaroid film.” Ansel Adams.


Eighty years after the original US patent (# 1,918,848) was registered, Polaroid's instant film is taking its final bow. In February 2008, Polaroid announced that it was closing its plants in Norwood and Waltham in Massachusetts (they used to produce large-format films) and in Mexico and the Netherlands. The news had come one year after Polaroid had stopped producing instant cameras, which were first designed by Polaroid's founder Edwin Land.

After the factories ceased production, Polaroid told its fans that enough film had been manufactured to last "well into 2009", making the upcoming year the final year of the Polaroid era. However, fans were (and still are) not ready to let go. Sites such as SavePolaroid were set up where enthusiasts sent letters to Polaroid and other companies such as Fujifilm or Ilford Photo in a bid to save the most popular instant films.

In June, Ilford Photo was close to a deal with Polaroid to continue to production of black-and-white instant films. but these hopes were dashed when Harman Technology (Ilford's parent company) told BJP that after reviewing the economics of the deal, it couldn't go forward with it. Then came Fujifilm, which is now rumoured to have entered in a partnership with a third-party instant film manufacturer (Fujifilm is the last company to have the capabilities to produce instant films) to resume the supply of the T125i (gloss), T664 and T667 instant films (read our full report here).

But, even if the latest rumours were true, 2009 will mark the end of Polaroid as we know it.

The Polaroid, in all its variants (from peel-apart to the SX-70 Artistic film, and even the more popular 600 film), marked a new era in photography after its popularisation in the 1970s. For the first time, photographers, amateurs and professionals, could see the result of their work under three minutes. The Polaroid, with its particular developing process, became an intimate object, as well as the film of choice to many great photographers such as Walker Evans, Igor Stravinsky and Ansel Adams (who became in 1949 an adviser for Polaroid and his friend Edwin Land).

The SX-70 camera, which spat out films for million of families and artists alike, brought fame to the firm. It was the time when Polaroid promoted its instant cameras with commercials featuring the now famous Hugh Laurie (see below).

But, as the years went by, Polaroid started to dissapear. While still widely used in the eighties and early nineties, it seemed that the firm itself just went through the motions, continuing to produce the films it had launched without much innovation to a declining client base. In 2001, Polaroid came back to the forefront, but for the wrong reasons. In October of that year, the film announded that its was filing for bankruptcy. Blaming the rise of digital photography for its decline, Polaroid was saved months later when in August 2002 One Equity Partners announced that its would take 65% in Polaroid. "Our objectives are to build a profitable core business and realise the tremendous potential of our instant digital printing technology," Polaroid's vice presidents William Flaherty and neal Goldman would say at the time.

Polaroid's goals, in 2002, were to develop new digital printing technologies using thermal transfer with inkjet technologies. These goals would not be realised for another five years. In 2005, Polaroid was sold again. In January 2005, Polaroid became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petters Group Worldwide, whose portfolio included direct marketing companies. Polaroid survived for another three years, while it quietly shut down its instant film processes.

Now, Polaroid has once again filed for bankruptcy, this time to protect itself from an ongoing investigation against Petters Group (read our report here).

Faced with public criticism against its decision to terminate its instant film division, Polaroid tried to offer fans an alternative. In 2008, it released the Pogo: a digital and instant printer, which spat out small pictures on a sticker. Gone was the white frame, the chemicals and the 90 seconds needed to find out what your instant camera had done with your picture. It was replaced by a small pocket-sized printer designed for the low-quality images taken from one's mobile phone (Polaroid has said that it will release in 2009 a digital camera with an embedded printer).

However, fans are refusing to give up. With websites such as SavePolaroid and PolaPremium (formerly-known as Unsaleable.com, and famous for its high prices), as well as the Polanoid collection, Polaroid enthusiasts continue to exchange tips of where to find the cheapest films and cameras (often found on eBay or photography specialists such as Calumet in the UK). Polaroid may have stopped producing the products that made its name (who knows Polaroid for its digital cameras or picture frames?), but photographers will continue to remember the joy and expectation that came with the noise of a SX-70 Land camera spitting out a rectangular white frame...


For more about the end of the Polaroid's era, visit the following sites:
The Polaroid: Imperfect, Yet Magical by the New York Times.
The Polaroid Collections by Polaroid.
SavePolaroid.com.
Polanoid, the largest Polaroid-picture collection of the planet.
Photojojo, Polaroid: R.I.P.


If you have a collection of Polaroid you would like to share with our readers, do not hesitate to add a link to your website in the comments below.