I love this weirdly philosophical, painfully earnest ad for the Polaroid SX-70 camera, first manufactured in 1972. Its nearly eleven minutes long. It explains how the camera works in almost ridiculous detail. But it also correctly identifies the Polaroid process as a tipping point toward making the photographic image less formal and distant, more integrated into everyday reality, something we absolutely take for granted now that most people carry digital camera-phones everywhere they go. Consider this quote from the ad: We have been looking at one invention which began pretty purely out of the conception of a need, the hope to change the person who takes pictures from a harried, offstage observer into someone who is a natural part of the event. No single thread wove this invention-- not lens, moving mirror, not film chemistry, not clever circuits-- they are coordinate, parts of a single strategy working to protect and fulfill the original hope... [The SX-70 is] a tool for supplying a rich texture to memory. More than that, thoughtful use can help reveal useful meaning in the flood of images which makes up so much of human life. I mean, holy crap, right? Now we can take pictures and LOOK AT THEM ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. Of course, the people in the ad seem to use this newfound ability to take pictures of corn and fruit and insects pinned to squares of cardboard, but give them a break. It was the 70s.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 06:17:25 +0000