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Polaroid: The Magic Material
Florian ‘Doc’ Kaps tells the amazing story of Polaroid, a photographic medium he helped to rescue from oblivion in 2008.
The story starts with visionary founder Edwin Land’s development of instant film in the 1940s. Doc shows how Polaroid has influenced visual culture in the seventy years since then, presenting more than 250 Polaroids including found portraits, ‘thoughtographs’, erotica, anthropology, fashion and fine art from photographers including Andy Warhol, Araki, Ansel Adams and Chuck Close.
The book also tells the story of how Doc revived production of film in 2008 with The Impossible Project, and explores the place of this analogue technology in the twenty-first century. The factors that led Polaroid to discontinue production in a world transformed by digital photography are the very reasons why there is ever-growing demand for the magic of instant photography today.
The story starts with visionary founder Edwin Land’s development of instant film in the 1940s. Doc shows how Polaroid has influenced visual culture in the seventy years since then, presenting more than 250 Polaroids including found portraits, ‘thoughtographs’, erotica, anthropology, fashion and fine art from photographers including Andy Warhol, Araki, Ansel Adams and Chuck Close.
The book also tells the story of how Doc revived production of film in 2008 with The Impossible Project, and explores the place of this analogue technology in the twenty-first century. The factors that led Polaroid to discontinue production in a world transformed by digital photography are the very reasons why there is ever-growing demand for the magic of instant photography today.
- GenresPhotographyArt
256 pages, Hardcover
Published November 3, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 27, 2017
Quick Summary: I received this book as a gift - appropriate as I'm a big fan of instant photography. Florian Kaps is behind The Impossible Project, a company which came into being when Polaroid™ was in its death throes as a manufacturer - it now exists as a licensing company - and the hundreds of millions of instant cameras around the world suddenly found themselves without film. After stumbling from a factory acquisition to trying to recapture the lost secret of Polaroid film, his company has kept the spirit of Polaroid - that is the science, not the art; see below - alive since its death. This book chronicles the history of Polaroid through Edwin Land's simple engineering vision 'one-step' vision to Kaps' fervent, fanatic love of what the film allows and how it is gaining strength once more. It's a book of hope and relief, showing how humanity very nearly lost something beautiful and unique. Kaps peppers the book with scanned Polaroids (the irony?) illustrating the format's uses and imperfections from quirky manipulations to its use in erotica and porn; did you know Gene Simmons has a collection of over a thousand snaps?
This book is clearly a work of love and worthy of more than your coffee table. Read it even if you think you're only mildly interested in instant photography and maybe the magic will infect you too.
Now for a more personal take:
About thirty years ago I first remember being the subject of a Polaroid photograph while on holiday with the family in the Middle East. It was a perfect moment captured by a guy working at a mall and we paid a couple of pounds for the image. I still remember the excitement watching the film develop and the image appear. That's when I first fell in love with photography. I started getting into 35mm photography in my early teens and digital in my late teens and after taking several hundreds of thousands of digital photos across dozens of devices from phones to DSLRs, it started to feel like everything was oh-so perfect and I wasn't doing photography for the sheer magic of it anymore but to put out the odd picture on Instagram and hoard vast quantities of digital photos that I couldn't possibly sort through anymore.
So with a sense of nostalgia I started looking at Polaroid cameras on eBay and thought I could get one or two units for the price of a family meal at Nandos. There was a snag: I looked to buy film and discovered that Polaroid had ceased manufacturing the film. My hopes were dashed until I noticed a few comments on a blog noting that the Impossible Project made film. I looked it up and it was expensive (about £15 for 8 exposures) but I thought it would be worth a punt for nostalgia's sake. And then I fell in love. Since then I have acquired 20-odd cameras and have gone through hundreds of Impossible Project exposures (many sadly wasted by my inexperience) and I've found that every camera has its own personality and every pack of film its own virtues.
So when I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. Not only had Kaps saved Polaroid for people like me but he got it in the same way I did. He felt the same way I did:
'Polaroids are intimate instant originals. Every one of them is a unique physical artefact, the product of one particular moment.' p43
'There is a another aspect to this instantaneity: it is completely possible to alter or fake a Polaroid picture.' [p62]
Therein is the magic for me. Each Polaroid image is a unique moment captured in time but altered by the variations in chemical composition, spread, lighting etc. The machines don't tend to have any of the modern digital autocorrects and adjustments to give you a perfect photo. Instead it gives you a truth - a way of seeing that moment - different from every other way of capturing it. I've never not had a beautiful Polaroid as a result. I think Kaps captures this thought and feeling wonderfully throughout the book.
Before I start to sound all Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, I should also point out that Kaps makes a particularly important philosophical point in his book. I don't think it's unfair to paraphrase that at the beginning Polaroid film was developed to provide an engineer's practical solution to a problem but what's truly magical about the format isn't just its simplicity but its artistry. And to summarise that, I'll end on a little anecdote:
In 2010, one of my old colleagues was in love with an app called Instagram. He used to routinely tell whoever would listen that he loved it because with its abundant filters and blur it could turn anyone with a phone into a professional photographer. It’s 2017 now and the endearing magic of Polaroid is that it could take anyone with an Instant camera and help them become an artist.
This book is clearly a work of love and worthy of more than your coffee table. Read it even if you think you're only mildly interested in instant photography and maybe the magic will infect you too.
Now for a more personal take:
About thirty years ago I first remember being the subject of a Polaroid photograph while on holiday with the family in the Middle East. It was a perfect moment captured by a guy working at a mall and we paid a couple of pounds for the image. I still remember the excitement watching the film develop and the image appear. That's when I first fell in love with photography. I started getting into 35mm photography in my early teens and digital in my late teens and after taking several hundreds of thousands of digital photos across dozens of devices from phones to DSLRs, it started to feel like everything was oh-so perfect and I wasn't doing photography for the sheer magic of it anymore but to put out the odd picture on Instagram and hoard vast quantities of digital photos that I couldn't possibly sort through anymore.
So with a sense of nostalgia I started looking at Polaroid cameras on eBay and thought I could get one or two units for the price of a family meal at Nandos. There was a snag: I looked to buy film and discovered that Polaroid had ceased manufacturing the film. My hopes were dashed until I noticed a few comments on a blog noting that the Impossible Project made film. I looked it up and it was expensive (about £15 for 8 exposures) but I thought it would be worth a punt for nostalgia's sake. And then I fell in love. Since then I have acquired 20-odd cameras and have gone through hundreds of Impossible Project exposures (many sadly wasted by my inexperience) and I've found that every camera has its own personality and every pack of film its own virtues.
So when I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. Not only had Kaps saved Polaroid for people like me but he got it in the same way I did. He felt the same way I did:
'Polaroids are intimate instant originals. Every one of them is a unique physical artefact, the product of one particular moment.' p43
'There is a another aspect to this instantaneity: it is completely possible to alter or fake a Polaroid picture.' [p62]
Therein is the magic for me. Each Polaroid image is a unique moment captured in time but altered by the variations in chemical composition, spread, lighting etc. The machines don't tend to have any of the modern digital autocorrects and adjustments to give you a perfect photo. Instead it gives you a truth - a way of seeing that moment - different from every other way of capturing it. I've never not had a beautiful Polaroid as a result. I think Kaps captures this thought and feeling wonderfully throughout the book.
Before I start to sound all Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, I should also point out that Kaps makes a particularly important philosophical point in his book. I don't think it's unfair to paraphrase that at the beginning Polaroid film was developed to provide an engineer's practical solution to a problem but what's truly magical about the format isn't just its simplicity but its artistry. And to summarise that, I'll end on a little anecdote:
In 2010, one of my old colleagues was in love with an app called Instagram. He used to routinely tell whoever would listen that he loved it because with its abundant filters and blur it could turn anyone with a phone into a professional photographer. It’s 2017 now and the endearing magic of Polaroid is that it could take anyone with an Instant camera and help them become an artist.
May 3, 2019
I picked this book up for a good price in that notorious purveyor of hipster crap, Urban Outfitters - for once they served up a gem!
Although this book does describe the history of Polaroid instant photography a little, the prime focus of it is the author's personal love of Polaroid photography, and how he came to spearhead the Impossible Project, the heroic effort to save the last Polaroid film factory from demolition, and bring instant film back into production.
It's an inspiring and interesting read, full of wonderful Polaroid images. It was written a short while before the Impossible Project acquired the rights to call their products Polaroid Originals, so that part of the story is missing, but it's fascinating to read how the film was brought back.
The author is honest about some of the challenges they faced, including the rather temperamental behaviour of the films. Unfortunately, this hasn't always been communicated very well to customers - having been used to old Polaroid film, I didn't realise how sensitive the new films are to various environmental factors, and my first few films produced very poor results. Although I now get on better, I do feel that Polaroid Originals tend to over-promise and under-deliver, and anyone used to shooting Fuji Instax is in for a shock at how Polaroid Originals film behaves. Still, that's not really a criticism of the book - ultimately, a minor miracle took place here, successfully re-establishing a niche product in a world where digital photography has become almost completely dominant.
Beautifully presented and illustrated, it's one for the shelf of every Polaroid geek/enthusiast, but if you want to know more about the history of the company and Edwin Land's involvement with it, be sure to read the 2012 book by Christopher Bonanos, which is fascinating and highly detailed. This is a nice companion volume, though, telling the continuing story.
Although this book does describe the history of Polaroid instant photography a little, the prime focus of it is the author's personal love of Polaroid photography, and how he came to spearhead the Impossible Project, the heroic effort to save the last Polaroid film factory from demolition, and bring instant film back into production.
It's an inspiring and interesting read, full of wonderful Polaroid images. It was written a short while before the Impossible Project acquired the rights to call their products Polaroid Originals, so that part of the story is missing, but it's fascinating to read how the film was brought back.
The author is honest about some of the challenges they faced, including the rather temperamental behaviour of the films. Unfortunately, this hasn't always been communicated very well to customers - having been used to old Polaroid film, I didn't realise how sensitive the new films are to various environmental factors, and my first few films produced very poor results. Although I now get on better, I do feel that Polaroid Originals tend to over-promise and under-deliver, and anyone used to shooting Fuji Instax is in for a shock at how Polaroid Originals film behaves. Still, that's not really a criticism of the book - ultimately, a minor miracle took place here, successfully re-establishing a niche product in a world where digital photography has become almost completely dominant.
Beautifully presented and illustrated, it's one for the shelf of every Polaroid geek/enthusiast, but if you want to know more about the history of the company and Edwin Land's involvement with it, be sure to read the 2012 book by Christopher Bonanos, which is fascinating and highly detailed. This is a nice companion volume, though, telling the continuing story.
December 28, 2024
Recently I’ve been super interested in analogue photography, so when I found this book at an antique store I thought it would make a perfect addition to my library. Florian Kaps writes about the incredible history of instant photography both from a fine art perspective and a leisurely one. This book includes many found polaroids and process images that are fascinating. The writer is able to make the history behind these images feel intimate and personal which just odes to the beauty of polaroids. Definitely a must read for those interested in the magic of film photography. Also! Large format 4x5 Polaroids! Talk about wow.
December 26, 2020
My interests are strong in analog formats and this book gave me a huge variety of artists and photographers that I would not have found ( and haven’t been able to find) by a Google search. This was a much needed read for my own research, personal practice, and passion for image making.
March 4, 2023
A good read on the history of Polaroids. And maybe…just maybe it has inspired me to trade in my disposable camera for something of higher quality.
January 22, 2017
i really enjoyed this book. It helped me understand why those first photos I made with Impossible film turned out so badly. I was ready to never buy their film again, but now I know they worked out the bugs and, years later, I'm ready to try again.
If you were a fan of Polaroid back in their hey-day and love the idea of holding a print in your hand then you might enjoy this story about the rise and fall of Polaroid and how a small group of people started again to give us many more years of instant film photography.
Thanks to the Impossible Project.
If you were a fan of Polaroid back in their hey-day and love the idea of holding a print in your hand then you might enjoy this story about the rise and fall of Polaroid and how a small group of people started again to give us many more years of instant film photography.
Thanks to the Impossible Project.
June 21, 2021
Doc knows what he's talking about and puts the story of Polaroid in a new light. Polaroid is really an underdog story and it's amazing to walk through the history with somebody who cares for it as deeply as I do. I love this book so much and will go back to it again and again I'm sure.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews