WE ARE ALL photographers now, creators of instantaneous nostalgia with our digital cameras and smartphones – maintaining a visual record of our lives has become second nature to most people. There was a time, of course, when the process of instant photography was synonymous with Polaroid, a brand and a technology that always managed to seem vaguely magical – capturing an image on to paper in mere moments.
The magic was all the work of Edwin Herbert Land, one of the most inspired, and inspiring, inventors of the 20th century. Born in Connecticut in 1909, Land had an early fascination with optics and enrolled in Harvard in 1927, studying chemistry, but after his first year he became a member of that vaunted club of inventors who dropped out of college – for the inspired few, it seems, the rigour of formal education doesn’t have much to offer.
To read the full, original article click on this link: innovators: Edwin Land 1909-1991 - The Irish Times - Fri, Jan 27, 2012
