The end of instant film and the beginning of something ‘impossible’

In 2017 Trevor Crone and myself published a handbound book and a limited edition lino print featuring London scenes using the ‘Impossible Project’ instant film and vintage Polaroid cameras. This article includes some images from this project ‘The London Sessions’ and a potted history of the Impossible Project and its evolution.

These instant film images sit inside the long arc of a medium that refused to disappear. The story of the Impossible Project is, in many ways, the story of why images like these still exist

The end of instant film and the beginning of something “impossible”

In 2008, the original Polaroid Corporation announced it would stop producing instant film, effectively ending a photographic culture that had begun in 1948 with Edwin Land’s first camera. 

Factories closed, chemicals vanished, and millions of cameras like the SX-70s, 600s, Spectras were suddenly rendered obsolete.

At that moment, a small group of enthusiasts led by Florian Kaps bought the last remaining Polaroid film factory in Enschede, Netherlands, along with its machinery. 

They called their venture The Impossible Project not as branding irony, but as a literal description of the task ahead.

Re-inventing the chemistry of memory

The original Polaroid film formulas were proprietary, complex, and in many cases environmentally restricted. The Impossible Project couldn’t simply restart production they had to reinvent instant film from scratch.

After months of experimentation, they released their first new films in 2010, designed for vintage cameras. 

Early results were unstable, unpredictable colour shifts, fading, strange artefacts. But these “flaws” became part of the aesthetic:

• soft blooms of light
• chemical streaks
• tonal unpredictability

Exactly the qualities visible in the London Sessions images the glowing grid of Canary Wharf, the washed sky over Victoria, the ghostly stillness near Tate Modern

A community-driven resurrection

Unlike the original Polaroid, the Impossible Project grew through a cult of analogue believers artists, photographers, and collectors who tested emulsions, funded development, and embraced imperfection. 

They weren’t preserving nostalgia, they were redefining instant  photography as an artistic medium in the digital age.

From “Impossible” to Polaroid again

In 2017, a major shift occurred. The project’s largest investor acquired the original Polaroid brand, and the company rebranded as Polaroid Originals, before simplifying again to Polaroid in 2020. 

What began as a rescue mission became the official continuation of the brand itself.

Today, the company:

• manufactures film for vintage cameras (SX-70, 600, etc.)
• produces new cameras like the Polaroid Now
• maintains the same Enschede factory still the heart of instant film

Modern Polaroid film descended from the Impossible Project it is still not identical to its predecessor, in a world of infinite, perfect digital images, instant film offers something else, a singular object, shaped by time and chemistry.

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