Polaroid’s instant film is likely to revive as a small number of Dutch scientists and one unmanageable Austrian salesman in Enschede (the Netherlands) have devoted themselves to efforts of reinventing this spectacular invention of the 20th century.
Polaroid has stopped making the film since last year as digital cameras are found everywhere because they are cheap and simple to use, so the Enschede group’s efforts are likely to be nostalgic.
Yet it seems that the group’s move is really retrograde. They only long for the revival of an out-of-date production process in an unused Polaroid factory for they hope that some people still have desire for retro photography that avoids airbrush or Photoshop.
This project is a matter of building a very attractive business to last for at least another decade, and this is about the importance of analog aspects in a more and more digital world”
All of them said that it would not be easy because chemical processes and the chemicals themselves must be reinvented in a factory that, though littered with Polaroid detritus of yore, lacks the necessary materials to restart production. Crucial equipment nearly landed in a Dutch dump. But the group got a break when prosecutors in the United States arrested the private equity investor who owned Polaroid’s assets.
The group wishes to begin production later this year for distribution in the United States, Europe and Asia and is convinced there is still an eager market for Polaroid film packs.
It is estimated that the number of Polaroid instant cameras in circulation at one billion. That number may be fantastic, or at the very least includes a lot of cameras in the back of closets. But the fact is that 30 million film packs in 2007, and 24 million in the first half of 2008 were produced at the Enschede factory for sale worldwide.
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