Edwin Land (1909-1991) was the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. His invention, the 'instant camera', required specific polarizing film, which he also developed and manufactured. From 1948 until the close of the 20th century, Polaroid pictures represented fun, cool immediacy. If traditional film and cameras were considered necessary, Polaroid was more an infectious indulgence. Although most of us were content to take candid shots with the occasional attempt at altering the still-developing image, artists Andy Warhol and David Hockney used their Polaroids for sophisticated work.
Digital photography has progressively reduced the demand for all film and in 2008 Polaroid announced it would no longer produce instant film. Numerous websites sprang into action to reverse what seemed the end of an era, the most serious being The Impossible Project.
Austrian artist and businessman Florian Kaps, is dedicated to instant photography. He established Polanoid.net, the biggest Polaroid gallery on the web, the first ever Polaroid-only art gallery in Vienna, and with the team of The Impossible Project, he aims to save instant film.
After purchasing existing machinery, signing a lease for Polaroid's former factory in the Netherlands and hiring original factory staff, the Impossible Project has begun work on a prototype. Their plan is not to rebuild the Polaroid format but create a new system complete with characteristics of its own, also with with its own unique brand. Worldwide sale of their new integral film is slated for 2010.
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