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The Polaroid 20×24 camera is a very large
instant camera An instant camera is a camera which uses instant film, self-developing film to create a chemically Photographic processing, developed print shortly after taking the picture. Polaroid Corporation pioneered (and Patent, patented) consumer-friend ...
made by
Polaroid Polaroid may refer to: * Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras * Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation * Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs * Polar ...
, with film plates that measure a nominal , giving the camera its name, although at least one camera takes pictures that are .


Design

The Polaroid 20×24 is one of the largest format cameras currently in common use, and could be hired from Polaroid agents in various countries. A
plexiglass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...
sheet is taped to the front of the lens, and the subject uses their reflection to help determine where they are in the frame. Because of the size of the image, acquiring an image with sufficient
depth of field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. Factors affecting depth of field For cameras that can only focus on one object dist ...
can be a challenge, and the lens (the camera at 20×24 Studio in New York City was fitted with a Fujinon-A 600 mm 11 lens) is often stopped down to 90. Lenses were available in a variety of focal lengths ranging from 135 mm to 1200 mm, but only the 600 mm, 800 mm, and 1200 mm lenses were designed for the 20×24 format. The 20×24 is collapsible for storage and transport like a
field camera A field camera is a view camera that can be folded in a compact size. Modern designs are little different from the first folding field cameras from the 19th century. In general they have more limited camera movements than monorail cameras, but ...
: the bellows are compressed into the body, and the body lowers into its base. In use, the bellows can be extended from ; the front standard has a movement range of (rise and fall), (side-to-side shift), and (swing) while the rear standard is fixed and has no movements. The body of the camera may be moved from above ground level. Developing chemicals are stored in foil pods housed in the processing unit at the rear of the camera, and are applied to the exposed film via titanium rollers. The film comes on two rolls: a negative roll and a positive roll. After the negative is exposed, one foil pod is ruptured by the rollers and the developing chemicals are spread between the negative and positive rolls as the film exits the bottom of the camera's rear processor; 1 minutes after exposure, the negative and positive are peeled apart, producing the finished photograph.


History

According to John Reuter, a former Polaroid employee, only six cameras were built between 1976–78; five remain in use. Tracy Storer clarified that two prototypes were built first, then using the lessons learned, five finished cameras were completed; famous artists and photographers were invited to use the cameras at the Polaroid studios on the condition that Polaroid was allowed to keep some of the resulting images. The camera was built by the company's wood and metalworking studios under the supervision of John McCann, at the request of Dr.
Edwin Land Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon.MRI (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an Russian-American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a ...
, who wanted to demonstrate the quality of Polacolor II film, which the company was about to launch in 8×10 format. The first portraits were taken at the 1976 Polaroid shareholder's meeting. The 20×24 Studio was spun off from Polaroid in 1980, with Reuter assuming technical and artistic lead duties, and the Studio's camera moved to the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
in 1982. That year, camera time was made available to students. 20×24 Studio moved to New York in 1986 to service the demand for commercial photography there, and the original space became known as 20×24 Studio Boston. In 1997, Tracy Storer assembled the first new production 20×24 in twenty years using spare parts and a 20×24 field camera front built by
Wisner Classic Manufacturing Company Wisner may refer to: People * Wisner (surname) Places In the United States: * Wisner, Louisiana, a town in Franklin Parish * Wisner, Nebraska, a city in Cuming County * Wisner Township, Michigan Wisner Township is a civil township of Tuscol ...
; Storer had been hired by
Calumet Photographic Calumet Photographic, Inc., often shortened to Calumet Photo and formerly known as Calumet Manufacturing Company, is a photographic retail and photofinishing specialty store, originally headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. In 2012, the company owne ...
to build the camera for a new large format studio in San Francisco, which was renamed The Polaroid 20×24 Studio West in 2001, and later Mammoth Camera. Storer has since built additional 20×24s on private commission and for 20×24 Holdings, one of which was shipped to Germany. Wisner also offered a processor for Polaroid film (essentially the rear section of a 20×24), allowing the use of Polaroid 20×24 film with the large Wisner field camera; at least one Wisner processor is owned by 20×24 Holdings to test film. Production of the film for the 20×24 was discontinued in 2008, with approximately 550 boxes in stock at the time. Each case of film contained one negative roll, three positive rolls, and 39 pods, able to make up to 45 exposures with sparing use. When the photographer Elsa Dorfman retired in 2015, only half the remaining stock was left, although The Impossible Project stated they were exploring how to restart film production. 20×24 Studio, which was founded by Reuter to lease the cameras and sell the required supplies, announced they had restarted production of the chemicals in 2010. However, 20×24 Studio later announced in 2016 that support would be discontinued at the end of 2017; at the time, it cost per day to rent a camera and each exposure was an additional . Improvements to the chemistry made using the old, stored film more viable, and 20×24 Studio later announced they would be able to continue operations through 2019. In 2021, Ethan Moses built a new Polaroid 20x24 camera, one of the first to be built by someone other than Polaroid.


Users and portrait subjects

Photographers such as
Dawoud Bey Dawoud Bey (born David Edward Smikle; November 25, 1953) is an American photographer and educator known for his large-scale art photography and street photography portraits, including American adolescents in relation to their community, and other ...
,
Ellen Carey Ellen Carey (born 1952) is an American artist known for conceptual photography exploring non-traditional approaches involving process, exposure, and paper.Ollman, Leah ''Los Angeles Times'', April 10, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2019.Zimmer, William ...
,
Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...
,
Elsa Dorfman Elsa Dorfman (April 26, 1937May 30, 2020) was an American portrait photographer. She worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was known for her use of a large-format instant Polaroid camera. Early life and education Dorfman was born in Cambridge ...
,
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (born February 16, 1952) is an American documentary filmmaker and portrait photographer based in New York City. The majority of his work is shot in large format. Early life Greenfield-Sanders was born on February 16, ...
,
David Levinthal David Lawrence Levinthal (born March 8, 1949) is an American photography, photographer who lives and works in New York City. He uses small toys and props with dramatic lighting to construct miniature environments for subject matters varying from ...
,
Mary Ellen Mark Mary Ellen Mark (March 20, 1940 – May 25, 2015) was an American photographer known for her photojournalism, documentary photography, portraiture, and advertising photography. She photographed people who were "away from mainstream society and t ...
,
Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
,
Joyce Tenneson Joyce Tenneson (born May 29, 1945) is an American fine art photographer known for her distinctive style of photography, which often involves nude or semi-nude women. Biography Tenneson earned her master's degree in photography from George Washin ...
, Jennifer Trausch,
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
,
TJ Norris TJ Norris (born October 10, 1965) is an American interdisciplinary artist known for his urban, conceptual photography and installation projects. Hailing from New England, Norris is also a celebrated curator and freelance writer based in Texas. E ...
, and William Wegman have used this heavy (), wheeled-chassis camera. Ansel Adams used the camera, notably to make the first official photographic Presidential portrait, of President Jimmy Carter in 1979. . To celebrate
Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
's new role as Creative Director of Polaroid, a portrait of her was shot with the 20×24 camera on June 30, 2010 at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.


References


External links


20×24 Studio
- 20×24 Holdings LLC, managed by John Reuter.
Mammoth Camera
aka 20×24 Studio West * * Wisner made a comparable 20×24 field camera using regular (non-instant) sheet film. * *
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Polaroid 20x24 camera Instant cameras Polaroid cameras