The Story of the Death (and Rebirth) of Polaroid Film

Harry McCracken:

In 2008, Polaroid discontinued a product which seemed to be pretty much obsolete in the digital age: instant film. Except that it wasn’t obsolete at all. A lot of people still liked taking Polaroid photos, and found things in the medium which digital couldn’t match.



One of them was Dr. Florian Kaps, an Austrian fan who missed Polaroid film so much that he spearheaded an effort to buy a shuttered Polaroid factory in the Netherlands and restart production. His aptly named Impossible Project now sells new film for classic Polaroid cameras, operates gallery/stores in multiple countries and generally makes the world a better and more interesting place.