Instant, The Story of Polaroid

[Bill Burk]

I'd buried a thought in the thread about "Trailer Camp Children" and think it may deserve a thread of its own.

Friends gave me a mind-blowing book for Christmas: Instant, The Story of Polaroid.

On page 49 are three pictures of Dorothea Lange, taken by Ansel Adams (with a Polaroid Model 95).

I'd just seen John McCann's excellent presentation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALfiTDYLtAQ

And I can't get over the idea that Ansel Adams spent a lot of time consulting for Polaroid.

On further reading, I find mention of Paul Caponigro and Minor White, all these photographers I think of as champions of LF photography and the high quality that you achieve from it...

They all dabbled in instant photography. I am sure they thought it was amazing.

p.s. I work for Kodak but the opinions and positions I take are not necessarily those of EKC.

[Brian Ellis]

And your point is?

[RichardSperry]

I think the sentence about Adams using Polaroid is a little misleading.

Ansel Adams loved Polaroid, and shot some of his most famous images of Yosemite National Park on Polaroid film

From the documentary videos I have seen him photographing, it was used as a settings proof, same as most people used it for. The sentence leads to a meaning that these were made into prints.

http://youtu.be/ZND3eczqoIA as example. Maybe John Sexton could clarify.

[ic-racer]

Doesn't that book mention that Ansel Adams got paid as a consultant for Polaroid corporation?

[Merg Ross]

Ansel was an early consultant to Polaroid in the 1950's, and a close friend of Dr. Land. Paul Caponigro, at the suggestion of Ansel, became a consultant in the 1960's. They used the P/N material extensively, printing either contact or enlarging. Paul published a book of contact images from the Polaroid material. Ansel used PolaPan52 for his work in the 1970's, a print of which is in his Portfolio VII.

[Bill Burk]

And your point is?

I edited out the point because it sounded like I was beating a dead horse.

Lately I have been focusing my derision on digital photography.

But I'd completely forgotten that we have gone through this before.

The book is helping me see different kinds of photography in perspective.

It seems clearer to me now there was historical processes, then film, then Polaroid, then digital.

All along none of them stopped (though Polaroid took a break).

[Thom Bennett]

"Paul published a book of contact images from the Polaroid material." Interesting, Merg. Which book was it?

[Merg Ross]

"Paul published a book of contact images from the Polaroid material." Interesting, Merg. Which book was it?

Thom, I should have said that all of the images were reproduced as "contact print size". The book was titled "Seasons", a NY Graphic Society book printed in 1988. There are 61 plates. The 4x5materials used were: Polaroid Type 53, PolaPan 52 and P/N Type 55. Some of the images are real gems of his familiar subjects.