Land Project

Known as “Din” to his friends and family, the chances are you have little to no idea who this guy is. It is but a near certainty that without you realizing, he has touched the lives of pretty much anyone, and everyone you know, in some way. I know this is especially true for my family and me.

I first learned about Edwin Land, after re-discovering a Polaroid Sun 600 in my in-law’s attic. It immediately brought back childhood memories of a certain square bodied, magic, camera, that I was never allowed to touch. I have fond memories of the click, whir, and whine and, of course, the eager anticipation while watching the image appear before my eyes.

After I snapped out of my reverie, my excitement barely contained, I made a point to visit my father, now entering his seventies, and show him my find. My father, was quiet for a few moments, and left the room.  When he returned he had a curious box in his hands that I did not immediately recognize.

“This was your mothers”, he said, as he handed me a near mint 1972 Polaroid SX 70, which I later found out to be hailed as the crowning achievement of Edwin Land’s vision to bring instant film to the masses.  Dad went on to tell me that it had stopped working and, at the time, the repair cost, for some reason, was more than the cost of the camera.

I was immediately intrigued. “Take it”, my dad said. Those two simple words began my personal journey of discovery into how Dr. Edwin Land’s genius and ability to see value in others at a time when society, as a whole, refused to, had made the impossible possible.

“Don’t do anything that someone else can do. Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important, and nearly impossible” - Dr. Edwin Land

My next endeavor was to try to breathe life back into the camera, and uncover, if I could, it’s history and how it fit into my late mother’s story. Something had caused my father to pause when he remembered the SX-70, an item that had been in storage, and nearly forgotten, for more than 3 decades.

A simple search of the serial number gave me a date, 1973. I spoke with my father, my oldest brother, and my mother’s sister, her last remaining sibling, and started putting the pieces together. To truly tell you the story of this SX-70, I must tell a story of the first Polaroid camera my mother owned.

In 1963 when my mother was a teenager, and my mother’s youngest sister was just turning 10, my grandparents wanted to get each girl something special. For my aunt, it was a ring with her birth stone, for my mother, a polaroid camera. 

Our best guess, based on the descriptions of how the film worked, is that my mother's  first camera was a Land Camera, model 800. It was an art-deco beast. A masterpiece of chrome accents, futuristic edges, and a solidity that imbues as sense of purpose in those who hold it. 

In 1967 my oldest brother was born 3 months pre-maturely, a tenuous circumstance, even today. The local hospital, lacked the expertise and equipment that my brother required.  He needed to be relocated someplace better able to meet his needs.  

The drive to Strong Memorial Hospital, some 200 plus miles away, was a big undertaking, for the family.  My father, having just started a new job, was making a reasonable wage, however the cost of transportation, lodging, and medical bills, soon drained what little they had.

Rolling change to pay for motel rooms, and gas, with tears in their eyes, my mother and father had to sell the camera, along with other items, to pay their bills. My brother’s recovery secured, life for our family went on, and the years passed.

In January of 1971, my eldest brother not yet 4 years old, my grandfather passed. His passing took my mother particularly hard. By this time, my father had the means to make up for some of the sacrifices made the decade before and purchased the SX-70 for my mother, sometime the following year. The price tag of just under $200, for the camera alone, was a tidy sum at the time. Adjusted for inflation this would about $1,200 today. 

My mother’s SX-70 documented my Aunt’s wedding, and many other family events, before it mysteriously stopped ejecting film. By the next decade I was born, and it was not uncommon to see at least one sun 600 at family gatherings. Family dogs, my brother drumming in a marching band on main street, birthdays and Christmas mornings.

Come to find out the issue with the SX-70 boiled down to a small piece of metal that acted as both spring and hook. The fix that camera technicians would charge hundreds of dollars for in the early 1980’s could be fixed, in a matter of seconds, without even taking the camera apart. All that was needed was a thin and long enough tool, something the size of a pencil, in my case a chop stick, and some good lighting.

The next step was to get my hands on some film if that was possible.  I feared the worst, as I knew that in 2008, Polaroid had announced, that they would stop making film for instant cameras. After some research I found the “Impossible Project”, a group of people who came together to try to save a small piece of Edwin Land’s legacy. 

In my mind’s eye I imagined the driving passion behind their motivations to be not all that different from my own, as I read about the company, later to be known as Polaroid Originals.  At this point the only thing to be done was order some of their film and test it out. I ordered some online and after a few days the film showed up.

With baited breath, I loaded film in to a camera that hadn’t held film or functioned since before I was born. My hands shaking slightly, I focused and pushed the shutter button. Much to my delight I felt and heard that iconic click and whir and a split second later the film ejected.  My knowledge of how to properly adjust for lighting notwithstanding, as that first image did not resolve, the mechanism worked.

Since then my collection of vintage Polaroid cameras has grown, and my passion for this medium has outpaced my skills exponentially. I consider myself, by no means an expert, nor do I claim to be anything but an amateur.

My family, graciously, allows me to wax philosophical about Dr. Land, Polaroid, and the legacy of the cameras, the company and the medium.  I am inspired.

Not so long ago, while visiting the Springfield museums, Springfield MA, with my wife, I had an occasion to ask a stranger to take our picture. A young woman, appearing to be in her early 20’s acquiesced and to her surprise I handed her a 1981 sun 600 Land Camera, a device almost as old I as am. 

Never having seen a camera like that before, I had to show her how to hold it and which button to push. She timidly followed my instructions.  At the time I was taking a small amount of pleasure in showing someone how something I was so passionate about operated. The child in me was looking forward to her being as delighted as I was when I first saw one of these “magic” cameras work.

“Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.” - Dr. Edwin Land

My wife and I posed, and with a little encouragement the young woman pressed the button. The camera clicked, whirred, whined and spat out the picture. The young woman, instantly frightened, nearly dropped the camera.  Having no idea what was happening, she was doubtful even after I explained what instant cameras were, and how they worked. Despite the near miss, the picture she took came out great.

In most circles Edwin Land was referred to as “Dr. Land”, having not earned the title in the traditional way. The son of immigrants who owned a scrap yard, and a Harvard college drop-out, Dr. Land utilized the NY City library system, and would sneak into the laboratories at Columbia university at night to conduct experiments.

He is credited with inventing numerous light polarization techniques, used today in everything from sunglasses, LCD screens, 3D movies. Second only to Thomas Edison in the sheer number of US Patent’s filed, during WWII he developed the technology for night vision goggles, and invented a viewing system, called the vectograph, that was used to reveal camouflaged enemy positions by air.  He was integral in the development of the optics and camera system used in the U2 Spy plane and others like it.  The goggles worn by the crew of the Enola Gay, the WWII bomber that made the run that dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima Japan, were designed by Dr. Land.

In 1963 Dr. Land received the presidential medal of freedom from John F Kennedy, for photography and his contributions to the war effort.

One of the most inspiring pieces of little know history, to me, about Dr. Land was his attitude towards people.  He was known to hire minorities and women, not for janitorial or secretarial positions, as was common at the time, but for research and management positions.  He sought artists, photographers and painters and had them hired and trained as researchers for his company. 

What my brothers and I were taught growing up, without realizing so, echoed what Dr. Land put to practice, in a time that such things were unheard of. I firmly believe that the value and potential value of a person is not necessarily what society says it is.

In the mid 70’s Land tried his hand at inventing an instant home movie system, one, he hoped would be superior to the traditional 8mm cameras that still needed to be developed and projected on a separate apparatus. Dubbed “Polavision” his product never caught on even though it was lighter and more compact than the systems he was competing against, Betamax and VHS recorders. 

At its launch Polavision had no sound and playing the video required buying a specialized viewing machine. The product was a flop and for one of the first times ever Land had not succeeded in wowing the public with one of his inventions. The shareholders of Polaroid eventual pushed him out and on July 27th, 1982 he stepped down.

To Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, Dr. Edwin Land was his childhood hero. Jobs has been quoted stating “Polaroid without Land is a vanilla corporation. You have lost your way and you do not matter anymore.”  

Please take some time and look through my humble collection. I have included some more histories and facts about Dr. Land, Polaroid, and the cameras featured, all in the hopes that you might get, at least, a small taste of what I feel whenever I pick up one of these wonderfully futuristic devices. 

A special thanks to Look Up Solutions and their team for making my vision possible. 

-John LaPlatney

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