bonanos

Posts by: bonanos

Instant Artifact: Print Coater

By bonanos On 20 January 2012 · 4 Comments

Last week, I recounted the story of Type 41 film, and the close call it briefly caused at Polaroid. Today, we visit the humble little product that saved the day: print coater. (Click photos to enlarge.)

It came in a little tube packed with each box of film: glass […]

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Instant Moment: Julia Henderson

By bonanos On 20 January 2012 · 3 Comments

Click here, and expect to stay awhile: A Shed Full of Polaroids.

Julia Henderson’s father was an executive at Polaroid until his death in 1988, when Julia was 9. Last year, she moved from New York to California, and finally confronted the thousands and thousands of Polaroid photos—mostly of Julia and her sister Amy, […]

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Kodak. Bankrupt.

By bonanos On 19 January 2012 · Leave a Comment

Lots of thoughts about this, of course. (Polaroid people lived through it, twice, and it was awful. I hope Kodak’s pensioners come out of this better than Polaroid’s did.) Lots of coverage, as you’d expect, in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Kodak’s hometown paper.

Just one statistic: Kodak at its peak, circa 1985, […]

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Outkast and the Shake

By bonanos On 18 January 2012 · 3 Comments

I think it’s fair to say that the last time the word “Polaroid” was everywhere was 2003, when the Atlanta hip-hop duo Outkast released “Hey Ya.” It wasn’t just the song of the summer; it was the song of an entire year, ubiquitous on the air and in the mall, one of the last true […]

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The Ghost of Edwin Land Is on Twitter

By bonanos On 18 January 2012 · Leave a Comment

The title says it all. He’s tweeting.

Or rather, was. Seems to have gone quiet as of September. Come back, Din!

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Instant Moment: Way-Expired Spectra

By bonanos On 17 January 2012 · 4 Comments

Last year, I picked up a Spectra camera through Craigslist, and it had a half-pack of expired film inside. It was at least a few years past its sell-by date, and I had no expectations that it would work at all. I don’t think I even intended to compose a photo; I just opened the […]

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