Narrator: There was a time when having a Polaroid
was like having a new iPhone.
It was a family favorite, and celebrities loved it, too.
At its peak in the 1970s,
Polaroid controlled almost two-thirds
of the instant camera market in the US.
Announcer: If you're not taking color pictures
with the new Polaroid Colorpack camera,
there's something left out in your life.
Narrator: But the digital revolution offered
a new kind of instant image.
Polaroid was left exposed,
and by 2008 it had stopped all production.
It took something called the Impossible Project
to bring it back.
But how did this photographic giant fall so low?
Andy Warhol was a fan.
And no birthday party or special occasion
was complete without one.
But the man behind Polaroid
wasn't thinking about instant film when he started out.
This is Edwin Land.
He started Polaroid in 1937,
developing polarizing lens filters
that reduce glare in sunglasses.
He went on to patent products for the use
in cars and 3D cinema,
and during the Second World War,
the military became Polaroid's main customer.
But it was Land's three-year-old daughter
who inspired his groundbreaking invention
after they spent a day taking photos on a Rolleiflex camera.
At the end of the afternoon, she said,
"Daddy, why can't I see the picture now?"
And he said, "Well, why can't you?"
Narrator: Land spent the next four years trying
to answer that question.
What he created was revolutionary.
A self-developing film
that could be contained inside the body of a camera.
In 1947, he revealed instant film to the world
with his own self-portrait.
Polaroid had compressed
the entire photographic darkroom process
into a chemical packet inside of a film negative
that would produce an image in less than 60 seconds.
The following year,
Polaroid launched its first instant camera,
the Model 95.
The camera debuted at a Jordan Marsh department store
in Boston, Massachusetts.
The first 56 cameras sold out in a day,
even though they cost the equivalent of $1,000 today.
It was mostly a product for the affluent.
Your friend who buys the iPhone the day it comes out.
It's that person.
Narrator: Over the next five years,
Polaroid sold 900,000 units.
Through the 1950s and '60s,
Polaroid cameras got smaller, better, and more popular.
The Colorpack camera, released in 1963,
was its first to offer color film.
And its automatic exposure made taking photos even simpler.
Announcer: It will give you a perfectly exposed picture.
On the spot.
In almost any kind of light.
Automatically.
Narrator: And two years later came the Swinger,
a plastic camera aimed at teens.
It took smaller, black-and-white photos, but only cost $20,
or about $170 today.
Announcer: Meet the Swinger,
the incredible new Polaroid land camera from 1995.
It talks to you.
Swing it up and take a look.
Narrator: By 1968, Polaroid's sales
had reached $400 million.
But Land still had his eyes on a bigger prize.
In this film produced by Polaroid,
Land describes his vision was to create a camera
that people would always have with them.
Land: A camera that would be like the telephone.
Something that you use all day long.
Narrator: That concept took shape
in the form of the SX-70,
a revolution in instant photography,
promoted by none other than a young Morgan Freeman.
Focus right here and press the button.
OK.
That's it, hold it!
Give it a nice smile.
Announcer: Polaroid's SX-70 Land camera.
Narrator: To Land, the company had fully come of age.
Polaroid brought all of its manufacturing
for the SX-70 in-house
and built new factories to meet demand.
According to Bonanos,
Polaroid spent well over half a billion dollars
to develop the camera system.
And they started to sell very fast.
In fact, they started to sell faster
than Polaroid could make them.
Narrator: In 1973, the company made 5,000 SX-70s per day.
They sold for around $180, almost $1,200 today.
Two years later, Polaroid sales hit $813 million,
double what they were only eight years earlier.
Land had this vision for essentially an iPhone
before digital technology.
And the idea was for that to be carried
by the average user in their coat pocket.
And whenever they wanted to, they could pop it up,
take a picture without having to adjust any dials,
any aperture, any shutter speed.
The camera would decide all of this for you.
Narrator: This is Kyle.
He's one of the founders of Brooklyn Film Camera,
a store that sells and refurbishes vintage cameras.
He used to work for the Impossible Project,
the company that would eventually save Polaroid.
But that comes later.
Looking around the store, the SX-70 is, well, everywhere.
It's Polaroid enthusiasts' favorite camera.
People could not believe this.
You could take this camera out, take a quick picture.
Something almost like Instagram,
actually, for the analog age.
Narrator: In the 1970s,
the Polaroid camera cemented itself
in popular culture.
Andy Warhol was an avid Polaroid shooter
and used a whole range of cameras.
Bonanos: He used a camera called the Big Shot,
that was built just for portraits.
And a lot of the Warhol silkscreen paintings
are based on photographs he made with that camera.
Narrator: By 1978, Polaroid hit $1.38 billion in revenue,
selling 9.4 million cameras.
As Polaroid's fortunes peaked in the late '70s,
Land gambled on doing for moving images
what he had done for stills.
The gamble was Polavision,
an 8 mm movie system
that could produce instant moving pictures.
Announcer: Polavision.
Polaroid's instant movies.
Seconds after you shoot, you've got it.
Narrator: But many were skeptical.
It was expensive,
the film required a ton of light to be exposed properly,
and you had to have one of these boxes close by
to see your film.
Polaroid only sold 60,000 units
before it was discontinued in 1979.
And the company was forced to write off $89 million.
In 1980, after 43 years in charge,
Edwin Land stepped down as president and chairman.
Two years later, he left the company entirely.
Meanwhile, Kodak had released its own instant camera
at a similar price point.
Grab onto the handle, at a low, low price.
Narrator: The products were so similar
that Polaroid brought a lawsuit against Kodak
for patent infringement,
claiming lost revenues of $12 billion.
Announcer: The problem for the Kodak instant camera
is that it works just like Polaroid's instant camera.
Narrator: Polaroid's iconic instant camera
remained popular, but without a diversity of products,
the company was vulnerable.
From 1978 to 1982,
its share of the US photo market fell by almost 10%.
Kodak was eventually found guilty of infringement
and forced to pull all instant products
from the market --
and pay Polaroid $909 million.
But that wouldn't be enough to save Polaroid.
35 mm film cameras were cheaper and easier to use,
and produced higher-quality photos.
The company started to cut costs
by outsourcing production and trimming its workforce.
By 1991, it only had a quarter of the employees
it did in 1978.
Companies like Canon and Nikon were emerging leaders
in the new digital camera market.
Consumers no longer saw the need
for an instant camera with expensive film.
Bonanos: And the whole way Polaroid had worked
was that the camera was sold more or less at cost,
and the film carried a huge profit margin,
60% on a pack of film.
And without film, the whole house of cards came down.
Narrator: Through the '90s,
Polaroid relied on products like the Captiva,
where the developing photo
was kept inside the body of the camera.
Where's the picture?
There's no picture?
Did you see the picture come out?
How can that be a Polaroid camera if there's no picture?
It doesn't look like a Polaroid camera?
It's not a Polaroid camera.
Narrator: The camera didn't hit,
and in 1995, Polaroid took a loss of $140 million.
Someone inside took the attitude that,
if we can just get our costs down per picture,
we'll be OK to compete against digital.
And the truth is, they couldn't be OK,
because the cost of a digital picture,
once you've bought the camera, is zero.
Narrator: In 2001, Polaroid declared bankruptcy.
Over the next seven years,
the company would change owners three times.
And in 2008, Polaroid announced that it would stop
all production of instant cameras and film.
It was the end of an era, or so it seemed.
At the closing ceremony
for its last remaining factory in the Netherlands in 2008,
Polaroid wholesaler Florian Kaps had other ideas.
Florian: I had all these customers,
and the business became bigger and bigger,
and I started to sell more and more films.
And then Polaroid called in 2008 and said,
"Hey, sorry dude, but we closed the last factory."
Narrator: Kaps decided to keep operating
the instant film plant
as part of a new venture
to keep Polaroid's instant film alive.
They called it the Impossible Project.
Over the next several years,
the Impossible Project worked with former Polaroid staff
to improve film quality
and became the only supplier of film
for the SX-70 and 600 cameras.
Everything from the developer, the fixation,
the stop of development, the protection from light,
all has to be in this little system
called a Polaroid picture.
So it's absolutely rocket science.
Narrator: In 2017, the Impossible Project bought
what was left of Polaroid,
and the company rebranded to Polaroid Originals.
The same year, the company launched the OneStep 2,
an homage to the original OneStep camera released in 1977.
Today, Polaroid continues to produce iconic cameras
and instant film for a generation wanting
an analog experience in a digital world.
Kyle: I actually think digital is kind of the fad,
which I know seems crazy.
But I mean, digital technology
has really only been with us
for around 30-some years in a mainstream way.
But it never quite feels as good
as doing the analog version, right?
It feels really good to use a camera that's mechanical
and to learn that camera and appreciate it
and understand it in a way that is incredibly holistic.
Narrator: Instant photography is cool again.
The Fujifilm Instax camera
is one of the highest-selling cameras in the world.
But Polaroid is finally embracing digital, too.
Its product line includes devices
like iPhone scanners and 3D printers.
For Kyle and many others, though,
the magic of the instant Polaroid is still there.
Kyle: I mean, being able to see this image develop from nothing
and slowly come in is,
to this day, is still beautiful to me.