A Golden Anniversary: 50 Years of the Polaroid SX-70
On stage at Polaroid’s annual company meeting in 1972, founder Edwin
H. Land pulled a folded SX-70 camera from his suit pocket and took five pictures in ten seconds.
For the first time, an audience witnessed an instant camera eject photos automatically with nothing to peel apart and no chemical residue. The camera was a hit from the start, quickly selling out in test markets after its launch in 1972. By 1973 it was in space, brought by NASA astronauts for use on the Skylab space station.
The Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera was the first single-lens reflex instant camera ever made and the first to use integral instant film which featured the Polaroid Classic Border format — the white frame now considered the quintessential icon of instant photography.
The camera’s collapsible body, focusing system and exposure adjustment options give it the perfect blend of form and precision still highly sought by photographers more than 50 years later.
To create this very special, limited edition 50th anniversary piece, original vintage Polaroid SX-70 cameras have been completely disassembled, cleaned, stripped of their original chrome plating and electroplated in 24K gold, before being reassembled with freshly refurbished internals and then repackaged.
There are only 50 of these cameras in existence and each is individually numbered.
