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ITEM 062: Polaroid Impulse Camera
Found on: 6/13/15
Materials: hard plastic, metal, glass, synthetic fabric
Damage/wear: minor scratches, hole in the corner of the plastic eyepiece
Provenance: USA
Production details: Polaroid (the company) was founded in 1937 by Edwin Land. It originally made protective goggles for the US military in World War II and did not start making the instant cameras for which it is known until 1948. Its peak revenue was in 1991 and it went through bankruptcy twice in the 2000s. Polaroid discontinued its analog instant film in 2008, though production of instant film was later picked up by The Impossible Project. It still produces instant cameras, but they use digital printing rather than film development.
Date or date range: late 1980s
Still in production: no
Rare: no
Still attainable from: Amazon, Polamad
Value: $50-75 used
Use: This camera would have been used to take and develop photos on the go. It can be understood as part of the ongoing and increasing desire to use photography to document sporadic moments in one’s life, as opposed to photograph’s more staid and ritualistic uses, such as the family portrait. In the 1988 TV commercial for the camera, a business woman goes straight to a club after work, parties all night, and then shows up to a business meeting the next day with Polaroids of her night spilling out of her purse.