Watch this trailer for new book about the history of the Polaroid camera, featuring a stunningly accurate prediction of an iPhone-like device from back in 1970!
In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Polaroid was the coolest tech company on earth. Led by visionary founder Edwin Land, it grew from a 1937 garage startup into a billion-dollar phenomenon - no wonder Steve Jobs saw him as a personal hero and an inspiration for Apple.
And as this trailer for a new book, Instant: The Story of Polaroid, reveals, Land did more than that. He more or less predicted how photography would evolve into a handheld device like the iPhone - more than four decades ago!
Polaroid's founder Edwin Land forsaw a device the size of a wallet that would be used to take constant photos so people could build up a lifetime of memories
As the book's author, New York magazine's senior editor Chris Bonanos, explains, a short film Land made back in 1970 "anticipates to an astonishing extent the way we all shoot photos and upload them to Facebook today".
In extracts included in this trailer, Land describes in the future in which he would "take a wallet out of my pocket, open the wallet, press a button and have the picture".
This device would be "something like the telephone, something that you use all day long, whenever an occassion arises in which you cannot trust your memory… [you would use it] as often as your pencil or your eyeglasses" to build up a lifetime of photographic memories. Sound familiar?
A new book traces the amazing story of Polaroid, one of the world's most innovative tech companies and a big influence on Steve Jobs
There's plenty more to Polaroid's amazing story besides, from the introduction of its first instant camera in 1948, to its massive rise in popularity and adoption by artists like Andy Warhol, to the company’s dramatic collapse into bankruptcy in the 21st century.
Bonanos rattles through the highlights in the trailer video, and the book is available to buy from Princeton Architectural Press right now.
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