The following are some thoughts on Edwin Land & the development of the SX-70 camera, followed by general Snore & Guzzle updates.

“I’ve now taken up that little SX-70 camera for fun and become very interested in it. I’m feeling wildly with it…I’m very excited about that little gadget which I thought was just a toy at first. I was using it to extend my vision and let that open new stylistic paths that I haven’t been down yet. That’s one of the peculiar things about it that I unexpectedly discovered. A practiced photographer has an entirely new extension in that camera. You photograph things you wouldn’t think of photographing before. I don’t even know why, but I find I am quite rejuvenated by it… It’s the first time, I think, that you can put a machine in an artist’s hands and have him rely entirely on his vision and his taste and his mind.”

~Walker Evans, 1973

In February, 2008, Polaroid announced it was closing its instant film factories in Massachusetts. However, they’re not folding up shop just yet. Their enormous log of patents is likely to keep them in business on the sub-licensing alone. The availability of instant film has already bloomed overseas, and boutique shops in Europe and Japan are already overwhelmed with orders.

However, I’m not especially interested in the sustainability of Polaroid’s instant film. I’m much more interested in the man behind the industry, and the science involved with crafting the SX-70 camera. Polaroid was essentially a one-man-band, all played by Edwin Land.

Edwin “Din” Land held 535 patents, second only to Thomas Edison in volume. At age 17, he dropped out of Harvard in order to return to research in New York City. There, he invented a method for creating large sheets of polarized material. (This is much more complicated than you might think. Polarization of light was a well established phenomenon, but the application was long in coming. Polarized sheets involved getting microscopic crystals to all orient to the same angle, and then solidify. Shifting the angle of a prism is one thing, shifting the angle of something you can not physically maneuver, like microscopic crystals, is a completely different animal.) At age 18, he patented the method, which began a lifelong career of creativity in the sciences.

As a man, he was private and elusive. In his 500 page biography by Victor K McElheny, there are exactly 7 pages of information indexed as “private life.” Here are Land’s thoughts on research…

“You want to be alone, with just a few friends. You want to be undisturbed. You want to be free to think, not for an hour at a time, or three hours at a time, but for two days or two weeks, if possible, without interruption. You don’t want to drive the family car or go to parties. You wish people would just go away and leave you alone while you get something straight. Then you get it straight and you embody it, and during that period of embodiment you have a feeling of almost divine guidance…”

Land was a great polymath and prodigal inventor, who devoted his life to doing “good work.” A short list of his titles and accomplishments might include: inventor of polaroid (used in sunglasses, 3-D glasses and photography filters, to name a few uses); developer of the U-2 spy plane (used to spy on Russia during the cold war); shrewd entrepreneur and director of a company that once employed 21,000 staff; and lastly, lecturer, writer and theorist on the topic of color theory in relation to cognitive science (he was a confidante and patron of Semir Zeki, one of the greatest neurobiologists to study perception and the brain). But mostly he considered himself a scientist. And the SX-70 was his most ambitious theory. When he set out to develop an all-inclusive camera that integrated a dark-room into the body of camera, there was no certainty his hypothesis would ever work.

The SX-70, released in 1972, was the result of 2 decades of research and development, and an estimated 200 million dollars of investment. Land essentially bet the entire company on this project.

The SX-70 was a deceptively simple looking camera, banded by polished chrome, and adorned with fine-grain leather. Inside, it was another story.

The camera was a complex blend of transistors (more than any previous camera), electronics, chemistry, optics and sleek design. Almost every component of the SX-70 represented a new invention: the ground glass viewing lens; the adjustable lens focusable from a shallow depth of 1.2 feet to infinity; the self-contained chemistry of the film itself, which was robust enough to deflect water and cold temperatures; and a flashbar developed by GE specifically for the camera. Unlike previous models, Polaroid relied on the development of their own batteries (which were embedded in each roll) and their own negatives for the SX-70, rather than relying on Kodak (the only North American company to ever do so). The new negatives were contained in the sturdy plastic sleeves we know today — previously they were peel-apart, and the final product often curled. Between the top layer of the film and the backing was an indescribably complex layering of chemicals that was designed to “turn on” the development process, and then “turn off” the developing picture several seconds later (using alkalinity as a chemical stopwatch), permanently fixing the photograph.

Land was what some might call a workaholic. However, that might sound like a trifling word in respects to his actual nature. He might be more accurately described as obsessed. He famously went 18 days without changing his clothes in order to solve a problem. Apparently, at Harvard, his wife took responsibility for writing up lab results because Edwin became disinterested after the problem had been addressed. He never received a formal degree from any institution, although he would later receive honorary degrees from Harvard and MIT (among others). His dedication to work sounds border-line autistic, in the sense that his intense concentration on the task at hand created a serious rift between his interior life and exterior. However, little documentation of his social life exists, and he was adamantly opposed to subjecting his family to public scrutiny. Only his work remains.

Instant photography was designed as the ultimate democratic tool in photography. Anyone could use it, and achieve the same results; an expensive lab was not required, nor proficiency with camera techniques. All it took was a good eye. Note Walker Evan’s observation, “It’s the first time, I think, that you can put a machine in an artist’s hands and have him rely entirely on his vision and his taste and his mind.”

And yet, the development of the cameras would alienate him from much of society. He would reportedly tune out any information not directly related to polaroid, and frequently dismissed colleagues that didn’t share his vision. The irony is that the humanization of photography led to a distinctive misanthropy from the inventor.

However, it’s hard so say what Edwin Land was really like. The quote on research above ends with Land describing the aftermath of the research process, where one has to enter back into society, and attempt to “become human” again. But what did being human mean to him?

Land’s Essays are now out of print. Photographs of him reveal nothing. In this photograph, he doesn’t even appear to be looking at the polarized sheet posed in front of him, he seems to be looking at nothing.

Charles & Ray Eames made a promotional film for the Polaroid SX-70, which was unveiled for its inaugural run in 1972. It’s one of my favorite industrial films, and while it’s technically a promotional film, I think it transcends its immediate application. The film captures the elegance of the SX-70 design, the complexity of its mechanisms and the beauty of its photographic possibilities. You can usually find the 8 minute film on any number of video hosting sites. Here is an audio excerpt from the film, with a score by Elmer Bernstein. Within the soundtrack you can hear the distinctive snap, click and delivery of the Polaroid film.

Elmer Bernstein – SX70 theme

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This brings me to some of my own personal work. On April 17th, I’ll be hosting a retrospective of the Eames’ work at the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House. The event is part of a series I curated called “Graphic Design in Film.” Here are some excerpts from a booklet I made for the program…
 

Oh, and I recently made a radio show. Actually, it’s just a podcast and it’s just over an hour long. I thought some of you may enjoy it. Contact me if you want to know the playlist.

Snore & Guzzle Radio Hour

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There have also been updates to the gossip column and the mp3 page.

And lastly, here is a poster I designed for the band Ra Ra Riot.

They say the human eye can perceive 10 million colors. Just thought I’d share that number with you. Here is a picture of the wall of polaroids in my room.

~Michael Neault