My name is Christopher Bonanos, and I wrote INSTANT: THE STORY OF POLAROID.
In my daily life, I’m an editor at New York magazine, where I work on culture coverage (theater, art, classical music, architecture) and also some other subjects, like urbanism and real estate. I’ve been there since 1993, which is so long ago that when I started I did not have a computer on my desk. I write for the magazine, too, on subjects as various as One World Trade Center, the stuff on the bottom of New York Harbor, and bad bagels. Also, a tiny story I published in New York in 2008 was the germ of this book.
I have written for other outlets now and then, including The New York Times and Slate. I also spent a year aboard Dadwagon, a dad-blogging site that continues to run, very well, in the hands of my co-founders.
My first Polaroid camera was a Model 900, purchased in a secondhand-book store and antiques shop in Cranbury, New Jersey, around 1982. (It cost me $3, negotiated down from $5.) Even then, it was a weird old half-obsolete thing, requiring Polaroid roll film, which by then was growing difficult to find. I used it until the film went out of production in 1992. Since then, I have owned many (too many) Polaroid cameras, some as objects and some as working tools. These days, I shoot mostly Fuji packfilm in a Model 180, and Impossible Project film in an SLR 680.
Today, I live in New York City with an amazing, excellent wife. We have a sweet, brilliant little boy who appears in hundreds of Polaroid photos.
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Christopher,
I have been waiting for your book. Thank you for your work.
I have been involved in a pleasurable and fruitful relationship with Polaroid film for many years (laleike.tumblr.com). Continues today with 350 camera and Fuji’s instant film.
Best regards,
Dave LaLeike
A pleasure to see your site, and thank you for the compliments. Keep shooting Fuji pack film, especially: It’s the only way we’re going to keep them making it.
Instant gratification, spreading the gospel. Gave you a shout out on my site. Good fortune to you and your book.
I’m really waiting for my copy to arrive! Working at Polaroid for Dr. Land, Peter Wensberg, Ted Voss and with incredible creative talent at Doyle Dane Bernbach with the likes of Phyllis Robinson,Bob Gage, Jack Dillon, Helmut Krone, Paul Margulies, and Stu Hyatt to name just a few, in the 70s and early 80s, was truly one of my greatest experiences. Being a part of Polaroid helped shaped not just my view of business, but my view of the world around me through a unique lens, where I could see and share on the spot with people I cared for. Thanks for keeping the spirit alive, Chris PS: I even remember Cathie Black’s first sales call to us to have Polaroid run in New York
Fantastic–I wish I’d found you when I was doing my research! What exactly did you do in Peter and Ted’s marketing group?
I may be slightly biased but this is an inspirational and compelling tale. If you have coworkers who enjoy reading tell them to get the book. More importantly, tell your boss/employer to read the book.
Not to get too political, but I would say it behooves any presidential candidate to call on Land’s ethos (maybe quote a speech or two that Land delivered to his employees) to light a fire under the ass of this country or any other of the planet.
A bit idealistic? Probably. But the book gave me goosebumps.
We need goosebumps, baby.
Regarding photos in the book: I’ll wonder, was it only Dr. Land that was allowed to lean on McCune’s Porsche?
How did you come by the Lange-Adams photos?
One more, did you attend the Sotheby’s auction of the Polaroid collection from two years ago?
Ah, so kind of you to say. If you are so inclined, Amazon reviews are wide open.
Land and Porsche: I suspect Land was the only one confident enough to just do it.
Lange/Adams: I found one photo in Adams’s book on Polaroid Land photography, and asked the archivist to look for it. She couldn’t find it, but she did discover an album of prints from that day with Lange, and I loved them–would’ve run more if the budget and page count had allowed it.
Sotheby’s: I went to the viewing hours and soaked up some time with the collection, and I watched the auction progress online, but I wasn’t in the room when the hammer went down.