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person1909–1991

Edwin Land

Disciplines:
invention
photography
polaroid
optics

Summary

American inventor and entrepreneur — founder of Polaroid Corporation — inventor of the Polaroid instant camera and polarizing film — one of Steve Jobs's primary inspirations for combining technology with liberal arts.

Core Contribution

Creates instant photography as a consumer category — Land's ability to invent, engineer, manufacture, and market instant film photography (from the chemistry through the camera to the retail experience) was the most complete technology-to-market achievement of the mid-20th century.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Lived in his lab — locked himself in for days at a time solving a specific problem, sometimes emerging having not slept — extreme monomaniacal focus as work style
  • Believed scientists should be able to explain their work to any intelligent person — gave legendary demonstrations at Polaroid shareholder meetings showing how his cameras worked
  • Was forced out of Polaroid in 1982 after its failed transition away from instant photography — dying companies and their founders' fates interested Steve Jobs deeply

Notable Works & Achievements

Numerous patents

Monocular Vision paper

Steve Jobs 'Make Something Wonderful' references him extensively

Historical Influences

Michael Faraday

Intellectual Lineage

Harvard Self-taught optics and chemistryPolaroid Corporation

Contemporaries & Peers

Kodak Steve Jobs

Minds Influenced

Steve Jobs Consumer electronics industry

Intellectual Posterity

Polaroid instant cameraPolaroid photographyEdwin Land as inventor-entrepreneur model

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