By 1956, fewer than 10 years after its first instant-print camera hit the market, Polaroid sold its millionth unit. The company’s first iteration, introduced in 1948, was an immediate success and didn’t face any competitors for years. Polaroid, of course, first made instant-print cameras popular. Instant printing is both a reaction and complement to an overly digitized life. Polaroid, Fujifilm, Kodak, and a handful of smaller, experimental cameras have capitalized on the millennial’s fondness for nostalgia - and as unlikely as it may seem, instant printing might have the iPhone partially to thank for its revival. Thanks to the arrival of Fujifilm’s Instax in the United States in 2008 and Polaroid’s recent resuscitation, consumer infatuation with digital cameras has dissipated as quickly as it arose in the previous decade. It’s projected that the market will reach $1.8 billion in revenue within the next three years. Yet the instant-print shooter-the lowest-tech camera available-has won over many. Broadly, iPhones satiate the average user interested in digital photography. Sales of DSLRs and point-and-shoot digital cameras are down high-end cameras with interchangeable lens devices saw only a small uptick last year, failing to reach the growth of previous years. In an age when Instagram has altered the photography world, instant-print cameras are conquering the digital era. For a moment, it seemed like everyone was content to forget the phones shoved in their back pockets the cameras, with their whirring motors and the photos they spit out, were more captivating.
Massive renditions of Polaroid prints with that iconic white frame hung above us every primary color washed over the space. Instead of using iPhones, everyone was shooting with OneStep 2s, and the photos were backdropped by bold and brightly colored patterns. Wandering inside the company’s setup at CES was like stepping into an Instagram playground from the past. Polaroid’s homage to its past didn’t end with the enormous (nonfunctional I asked) OneStep 2. While it was far from Polaroid’s first camera, it was the one with which the brand became synonymous. It had a single button and a motor that would spit out your photo.
The original OneStep was released in 1977, and it was the company’s first one-click camera. Standing front and center was a nearly 6-foot-tall re-creation of Polaroid’s latest release, the OneStep 2. So when I stepped into Polaroid’s booth in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Showcase in January and was greeted by a giant, room-size version of its new throwback instant-print camera, I struggled to contain my 11-year-old self’s enthusiasm. Either way, they were worthy of framing - or, at the very least, securing to the refrigerator.
The rest of the time, the cameras delivered tiny, perfect works of art. Half the time, the old film and slightly busted camera yielded fuzzy, oddly colored photos. But there was something charming about the rickety, toylike cameras. The film was expensive, and often the cameras needed small repairs and ample cleaning. I used to prowl Goodwill and garage sales for old Polaroid cameras as a kid.
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