Instant Dreams

There could hardly be a more telling contrast between the analog and digital eras than the beautifully blurry memories captured in a Polaroid picture and the thousands of pinsharp photos on an iPhone In this ambitious visual essay Willem Baptist explores the visionary genius of Edwin H Land the inventor of the Polaroid camera Even today all sorts of people are keeping his instant dream alive Former Polaroid employee Stephen Herchen moved from the United States to Europe to work in a laboratory developing the 20 version of Polaroid Christopher Bonanos the author of Instant The Story of Polaroid tells us When I heard Polaroid would stop making film it felt like a close friend had died Artist Stefanie Schneider who is working with the last of her stock of Polaroid film is using the blurring that occurs with expired film as an additional aesthetic layer in her photographic work