On 21 February 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated his new “instant camera” to members of the Optical Society of America meeting in New York City. Land was an inventor and physicist who created a one-step method for developing and printing which allowed for instant photography.

Previously, developing pictures required a specific process of exposing the film to various chemicals in a dark room in a very precise order. The film was first treated with a developer that turned the exposed particles in the film silver and then it was given a treatment with three dye developers.

Obviously, pictures took quite a while to develop with this process, especially in the 1940’s before Land came out with his revolutionary invention. His instant film was developed by essentially creating a mini dark room inside the camera and printing the picture on special plastic paper containing layers of the chemicals used in traditional photo development.

When a picture was snapped with the instant camera, the paper passed through two roller-type constructs which spread the final ingredient, a layer of reagent (mixture of final necessary chemicals, alkali, and white pigment) which sits above the light-sensitive layers of the film.

The instant camera went down in history almost as instantly as the picture developed. Even today, instant photography is still popular, despite the fact that Polaroid instant cameras and film were discontinued in 2008.

Polaroid came out with digital cameras that can print the pictures you take instantly in 2012 and the distinct style of Polaroid pictures inspired Instagram, an astoundingly popular social media platform. Instagram users take photographs via their smartphones through filters, making the pictures look like Polaroids, and post them online.

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–Claire Wittbracht

Photo Caption: Edward Land on the October 27, 1972 cover of Time magazine.

Meet the Author

I am in my second year at Schoolcraft College majoring in English. I hope to transfer to the University of Michigan in the fall of 2014. My hobbies include watching TV and movies, hanging out online, and playing with my dogs.