Innovation / imagination : 50 years of Polaroid photography

Fifty years ago, Edwin Land, the founder of the Polaroid Corporation, invented instant photography and revolutionized the medium. Since that time, Polaroid has collaborated with numerous established and emerging artists, including Ansel Adams, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Frank, David Hockney, Nancy Burson, Lucas Samaras, and William Wegman, exchanging cameras and film for exhibition-quality photographs. This book, published to accompany a traveling exhibition, brings together 82 superb works from the Polaroid Collection. Polaroid photography allowed artists to see their work in seconds, radically altering the relationship between photographer and subject. The quality of Polaroid film, too, is unequalled; its vibrant, saturated hues are not found in any other photographic medium. The images reproduced here, accompanied by an essay and comments from the photographers, display the artistic innovation and technical achievement made possible by Land's inventions. They also present an overview of the past 50 years in photography.