12/14/2012

‘Instant’ Looks at Polaroid’s Land

Chuck Close used the 20×24 Polaroid camera to produce immense images of his own face, including this breakthrough 1979 work Self-Portrait/Composite/Nine Parts. Photograph courtesy of ©Chuck Close and The Pace Gallery. Image from “Instant: The Story of Polaroid” by Christopher Bonanos published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2012

Writer Christopher Bonanos tells the story of analog instant photography and the man who invented it—Edwin Land, the scientist and co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Plus Flora Lichtman visits New York’s 20×24 Studio to capture a super-sized Polaroid camera in action.

David Leventhal’s American Beauties series of 1989 and 1990, shot on the 20×24 camera, suggests both innocence and foreboding, play and something sinister. Copyright © David Leventhal. Image from “Instant: The Story of Polaroid” by Christopher Bonanos published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2012

Segment Guests

Christopher Bonanos

Christopher Bonanos is a writer for New York Magazine and the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012). He is based in New York, New York.

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Flora Lichtman

Flora Lichtman is a host of Science Friday. In a previous life, she lived on a research ship where apertivi were served on the top deck, hoisted there via pulley by the ship’s chef.

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Meet the Producer

About Annette Heist

Annette Heist is a former senior producer for Science Friday.