Since the invention of instant film and cameras, photographers were given new cameras and instant films to test in the field. How did these products perform? Were they up to par? Or better? Or did they need revision?

This search for knowledge documents Polaroid's technological evolution and produces a collection of aesthetically significant images by young, aspiring, established and renowned photographers.

History:

For the past 50 years, from the inception of instant photography, Polaroid Corporation has actively promoted the arts through its Artist Support Programs. What originally began as a research activity has since grown into a significant, mutually beneficial relationship between the corporation and the artist.

Since the early years of Polaroid film testing in the late 1940s, artists have been invited to experiment with Polaroid film materials, and selected work has been accessioned into the permanent archives of the Polaroid Collection, now housed in Waltham, Massachusetts, La Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris and Le Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In 1948, the year the first instant camera was marketed, Ansel Adams was hired by Polaroid's founder, Edwin H. Land, as a consultant to test new films and analyze results. His contributions led the way for the support programs to follow. Dr. Land felt that the artist could tell us things about Polaroid products from a point of view that would be quite different from that of the company's technical staff. He sensed that artists would push Polaroid film to the limits and report back even the most minute problems.

In the 1950s and '60s, several young photographers joined Adams in testing film, among them, Paul Caponigro, William Clift, Nick Dean and John Benson. Much of their early black-and-white work, influenced by the landscape tradition of Adams and Minor White, forms the basis of The Polaroid Collection. Officially founded in the late sixties. The Collection aims to encourage and assist photographers in the medium of Polaroid instant photography and to enable Polaroid Corporation to acquire an exciting and diversified collection of original instant images.

The Library Collection:

The International Polaroid Collection, begun informally in the late sixties, contains photographs that express experimentation and innovation by an international array of professional photographers and artists. In Europe, David Bailey, Sarah Moon, Helmut Newton and Josef Sudek were among the leading artists who were intrigued by the opportunity and challenge to experiment with what, for them, was new photographic technology. Their "instant" imagery stimulated interest among other practitioners and the collection began to blossom. The two complementary collections - American and international - together comprise more than 22,000 images by more than 1000 photographers; the collections were integrated in 1990.

The 1970s and '80s were a very active period for the Artist Support Program. Hundreds of photographers, working with various instant films, created works of art for themselves and Polaroid. Rosamond Purcell, a Boston artist with an international reputation, says: I started as a photographer with Polaroid films, and my progress has been defined by the materials. This medium encourages play and active participation, and demands that you figure it out as you go along. Because you're generally working from print to print, you can't pretend. You know right away whether it's successful or not."

Although artists work in a variety of Polaroid film formats, one of the most exciting ones exploded on the scene in 1978 when the Polaroid 20x24 camera and film system were introduced. Producing a 20x24-inch "contact" print, the large format camera is renowned for the lush color and crisp black-and-white photographs artists and commercial photographers create. William Wegman made his anthropomorphic Weimaraners famous in these giant photographs, while other artists, including Olivia Parker, Chuck Close, David Hockney, Dawoud Bey and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, explore the creative potential of ultra large format in distinctly different ways.

Polaroid's primary commercial 20x24 studio is located in New York City, however, another commercial studio is in Prague, the Czech Republic, to serve the European markets. In Boston, a testament to Polaroid support for photographic education, a 20x24 camera has been loaned to Massachusetts College of Art for use in their art curriculum. Today, The Polaroid Collection stands as a shining example of the quality and diversity of images created in art and industry throughout the world.

Artist Support Program:

The Artist Support Program is designed for the mutual benefit of all parties: artists receive support and exposure, the viewing public gains access to a richly creative body of work, and the Corporation gains feedback, publicity, and sales for its products. Photographers are given small film and equipment grants and asked to provide Polaroid with one image per grant for the Collection. Exhibitions are created periodically from the Collection and toured throughout the international museum circuit, publicity is generated, portfolios are printed in the media, and books are published. Since 1973, more than 40 exhibitions have been exhibited, including, Aigner's Paris, From My Window (André Kertész),Lucas Samaras: Polaroid Photographs, 1969-1983, and Legacy of Light. In addition to generating positive publicity for the corporation, exhibitions like these illustrate the quality and creative potential of Polaroid films to a wide audience.