• Behind The Scenes At The Impossible Project's Resurrected Polaroid Facility

    Monday, June 20th, 2011

    Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More


    Although we weep for the Polaroid of yesteryear, the world of instant film hasn’t just disappeared. As we’ve noted over the last couple years, Dutch company Impossible has taken it upon themselves to keep the old Polaroid film factory running — no small task. This little 10-minute documentary shows some of the process and a few of the people involved.

    It’s not as simple as turning the lights back on and buying the chemicals, though. The Polaroid process wasn’t included with the factory; most likely, it’s the property of whoever bought the company’s IP. So the developer, film, and all the little bits and pieces had to be re-invented, though the Polaroid cartridges could be imitated and manufactured easily enough.

    So far they have two varieties of film: silver shade and color shade. They’re not the same as the old Polaroids, but they’re working on replicating that as well as doing their own thing. The process isn’t perfect, either, so every cartridge is slightly different. Some like that, some don’t.

    At any rate, check out the video above if you’re a Polaroid fan at all.

    [via PetaPixel]

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