--- product_id: 1564379 title: "Instant: The Story of Polaroid" price: "312.87 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1564379-instant-the-story-of-polaroid store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # Instant: The Story of Polaroid **Price:** 312.87 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Instant: The Story of Polaroid - **How much does it cost?** 312.87 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1564379-instant-the-story-of-polaroid) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description "Instant photography at the push of a button!" During the 1960s and '70s, Polaroid was the coolest technology company on earth. Like Apple, it was an innovation machine that cranked out one must-have product after another. Led by its own visionary genius founder, Edwin Land, Polaroid grew from a 1937 garage start-up into a billion-dollar pop-culture phenomenon. Instant tells the remarkable tale of Land's one-of-a-kind invention-from Polaroid's first instant camera to hit the market in 1948, to its meteoric rise in popularity and adoption by artists such as Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close, to the company's dramatic decline into bankruptcy in the late '90s and its unlikely resurrection in the digital age. Instant is both an inspiring tale of American ingenuity and a cautionary business tale about the perils of companies that lose their creative edge. Review: Very well done, readable, good pictures, just the right level of detail. - Very nice, couldn't put it down. Well-written, well-informed, just the right level of detail, insightful. If you're interested in Land and Polaroid you'll enjoy this book. I remember a lot of the products and events mentioned and it brought them to life for me. It connected a lot of dots... for example, I'd wondered about the Fujifilm Instax cameras showing up in stores; basically, Polaroid technology had been licensed to Fuji under a business deal, and when Polaroid was destroyed by corporate raiders, Fujifilm kept on with it. The pictures are very well done. For reasons I don't understand, Kindle books often seem to have low-resolution pictures, or pictures with technical problems. These don't. And, almost magically, the color pictures actually seem to capture the _look_ of Polaroid color. Review: The magical picture machine - Looking for an addictive and breezy little non-fiction book that you can polish off on a round trip plane flight? "Instant" is your ticket. This slim little volume covering the history of one of the most recognizable names in corporate America--and purveyors of one of the world's most memorable products--is written in a friendly, conversational style that really pulled me along. Everyone except the very youngest among us fondly remember the pre-digital thrill of snapping a photo and seeing the results just seconds later. In a time when amateur photographers dropped their film cassette off at the nearest Foto Hut and waited a week for the prints to come back from the lab, Polaroid's instant print was rather magical. Steve Jobs has often been compared to the father of instant film and co-founder of Polaroid, Edwin Land. They shared the common trait of being passionate visionaries who built a cult-like following of true believers who wanted to work for them. They ran companies that certainly wanted to make money, but that were first and foremost dedicated to the dream of their magical product. Both men were unshakable in their own self-confidence and their unwavering belief in the righteousness of their cause. Land, a fascinating character who has already inspired books covering his life in detail, gets less attention in "Instant" than one might want, but the nature of this book is to be brief. If you're interested in following up for more, you certainly have that option elsewhere. Part biography of Edwin Land and part company history, "Instant" also reviews the technical challenges of creating a self-contained, portable photo developing system, highlighting both its successes and notable shortcomings. (Various early incarnations of instant prints curled, discolored or required the application of an inconvenient liquid fixitive following printing.) It was a full twenty years after the debut of instant black-and-white Polaroid film that the familiar color prints with their large, white bottom border appeared in the early 70s. "Instant" also covers a little-known aspect of the Polaroid story: the small band of artists who were some of the product's biggest fans. (Did you know that none other than visual perfectionist Ansel Adams had a decades-long association with Polaroid?) Other prominent big names who were advocates of Polaroid film included Chuck Close and Andy Worhol, among others. This is perhaps one of the more surprising aspects of the story. Polaroid was often regarded by connoisseurs as a synonym for inferior photographs meant strictly for the amateur who didn't mind things like soft focus or less than accurate color saturation. But Polaroid produced a number of other far lesser-known instant-film products dedicated to professional applications. In fact, they produced super large format studio cameras capable of delivering superior quality prints that could compete with the finest equipment. Alas, despite the successes of Polaroid and its visionary leader who gave the world a magical product, it became a victim of its devotion to the very product that inspired it. The tragedy of Polaroid is that it was generally well positioned to take advantage of the digital revolution but it failed--for a complex number of reasons--to do so. For those of us who remember the joy of watching photos resolve into existence from the gray-green haze of a Polaroid frame, the final chapters of "Instant" leave us with a wistful feeling. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,186,267 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #332 in Popular Culture Antiques & Collectibles (Books) #1,146 in Photography History #2,141 in Photograpy Equipment & Techniques | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 240 Reviews | ## Images ![Instant: The Story of Polaroid - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61W6lfF9l6L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very well done, readable, good pictures, just the right level of detail. *by D***H on June 18, 2017* Very nice, couldn't put it down. Well-written, well-informed, just the right level of detail, insightful. If you're interested in Land and Polaroid you'll enjoy this book. I remember a lot of the products and events mentioned and it brought them to life for me. It connected a lot of dots... for example, I'd wondered about the Fujifilm Instax cameras showing up in stores; basically, Polaroid technology had been licensed to Fuji under a business deal, and when Polaroid was destroyed by corporate raiders, Fujifilm kept on with it. The pictures are very well done. For reasons I don't understand, Kindle books often seem to have low-resolution pictures, or pictures with technical problems. These don't. And, almost magically, the color pictures actually seem to capture the _look_ of Polaroid color. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The magical picture machine *by G***R on February 2, 2013* Looking for an addictive and breezy little non-fiction book that you can polish off on a round trip plane flight? "Instant" is your ticket. This slim little volume covering the history of one of the most recognizable names in corporate America--and purveyors of one of the world's most memorable products--is written in a friendly, conversational style that really pulled me along. Everyone except the very youngest among us fondly remember the pre-digital thrill of snapping a photo and seeing the results just seconds later. In a time when amateur photographers dropped their film cassette off at the nearest Foto Hut and waited a week for the prints to come back from the lab, Polaroid's instant print was rather magical. Steve Jobs has often been compared to the father of instant film and co-founder of Polaroid, Edwin Land. They shared the common trait of being passionate visionaries who built a cult-like following of true believers who wanted to work for them. They ran companies that certainly wanted to make money, but that were first and foremost dedicated to the dream of their magical product. Both men were unshakable in their own self-confidence and their unwavering belief in the righteousness of their cause. Land, a fascinating character who has already inspired books covering his life in detail, gets less attention in "Instant" than one might want, but the nature of this book is to be brief. If you're interested in following up for more, you certainly have that option elsewhere. Part biography of Edwin Land and part company history, "Instant" also reviews the technical challenges of creating a self-contained, portable photo developing system, highlighting both its successes and notable shortcomings. (Various early incarnations of instant prints curled, discolored or required the application of an inconvenient liquid fixitive following printing.) It was a full twenty years after the debut of instant black-and-white Polaroid film that the familiar color prints with their large, white bottom border appeared in the early 70s. "Instant" also covers a little-known aspect of the Polaroid story: the small band of artists who were some of the product's biggest fans. (Did you know that none other than visual perfectionist Ansel Adams had a decades-long association with Polaroid?) Other prominent big names who were advocates of Polaroid film included Chuck Close and Andy Worhol, among others. This is perhaps one of the more surprising aspects of the story. Polaroid was often regarded by connoisseurs as a synonym for inferior photographs meant strictly for the amateur who didn't mind things like soft focus or less than accurate color saturation. But Polaroid produced a number of other far lesser-known instant-film products dedicated to professional applications. In fact, they produced super large format studio cameras capable of delivering superior quality prints that could compete with the finest equipment. Alas, despite the successes of Polaroid and its visionary leader who gave the world a magical product, it became a victim of its devotion to the very product that inspired it. The tragedy of Polaroid is that it was generally well positioned to take advantage of the digital revolution but it failed--for a complex number of reasons--to do so. For those of us who remember the joy of watching photos resolve into existence from the gray-green haze of a Polaroid frame, the final chapters of "Instant" leave us with a wistful feeling. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great story *by F***S on November 2, 2023* Very well written, enjoyed the detailed information...book arrived quickly and packaged extremely well... --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1564379-instant-the-story-of-polaroid](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1564379-instant-the-story-of-polaroid) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-06-01*