Manifestly Important and Nearly Impossible

Polaroid creator and brilliant inventor Edwin Land once said “Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.” Yesterday I had the chance to take in Project Impossible: V2.0 Photos From the People at Vancouver’s iconic Science Centre, captured above by my trusty iPhone 6+ and transformed into an equally iconic Polaroid snap by clever photo editing site Pic Monkey. Inspired by my latest read A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid and the Kodak Patent War, I hopped on the Skytrain to check out the progress of Project Impossible, the folks behind the revival of Polaroid film.

What I found was a thoughtful ode to the storied past of instant photography through the lens of Polaroid. Of course it was not lost on me that instant photography has become “more instant” than the artfully crafted snaps that issued out the equally artfully designed Polaroid cameras of the early 70’s as I effortlessly snapped photos with my “always-with-me-camera,” my iPhone. I’m sure many of us cannot now imagine a time when photos were not effortlessly taken, instantly shared (and rarely printed), but in Land’s time, the era of film photography, every shot was carefully planned, the photographer painstakingly patient for the (hopefully) successful snap to appear days, even weeks later.

How did we come to expect instant photography? We have Edwin Land to thank. On a walk one day in the mid 1930’s, Land was posed a very simple, yet elegant question by his young daughter after taking a picture with his Rolleiflex film camera: “Why can’t we see the picture now, Daddy?” Land, ever the thoughtful inventor, decided, why not? He then set about developing over a span of many years the first Polaroid camera called the SX-70 Land Camera (I am a proud owner of the Alpha One and it IS a work of art!) The Project Impossible exhibit celebrates the revival of the art, science and craft of creating tangible artifacts that can be shared hand to hand, much like we are seeing a renewed interest in well-produced, tangible, printed books. It is about the photo and the story it tells after all, isn’t it?

If you enjoy photography as much as I do, please join me over at Flipboard where I am curating an on-line magazine dedicated to all things photography, including the shift from film to digital, new camera releases and a wide variety of photography tips and tricks from across the world wide web. You can find my magazine here. You can also find a few more photos from yesterday’s shoot over on my Facebook Page. It was a great Vancouver adventure! Up next, the new Emily Carr Exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Stay tuned…

Have a wonderful week!