American Experience: Season 37, Episode 3

37 - 3: Mr. Polaroid

Meet Edwin Land, the visionary scientist and inventor of the Polaroid camera. When it was introduced in 1948, the Polaroid revolutionized amateur photography with a camera that provided pictures instantly – by the 1970s, people across the globe were shooting over a billion Polaroids a year. The camera not only revolutionized how we take pictures and capture memories, but it also helped earn Land a reputation as one of the most visionary and prolific inventors and entrepreneurs of the 20th century. His invention of a new product and a new and creative corporate culture would inspire the leaders of the 1990s tech boom, including Steve Jobs, who saw Land as both a guru and godfather.