Deconstructing Product Design

SX-70 Camera

Edwin Land and Henry Dreyfuss & Associates for Polaroid, 1972

1. The goal of the SX-70 was to actualize Alfred Stieglitz’s vision of removing all barriers between the photographer and the subject, freeing the photographer of all burdens except that of the decision to take the picture. This was a nontrivial goal requiring a nontrivial solution, and it took over twenty-five years to realize it. And long before Steve Jobs was wowing audiences with demonstrations of iPods and iPhones, it was Edwin Land who commanded the room, presenting the new Polaroid SX-70 camera. Edwin Land comments during a demonstration to photographers: “We’ve looked at the image in the reflex viewer. We’ve touched the button five times, and we have five dry ...