The Polaroid Corporation was launched in 1937 becoming a touchstone for American innovation and engineering prowess. It was the brainchild of scientist and inventor Edwin Land and his Harvard tutor George Wheelwright and at first made the plastic for polarising sunglasses. In time, it was to create and popularise instant photography, launching a seriesof pioneering cameras and film formats. These inspired generations of artists, including Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Maripol, Keith Haring and Guy Bourdin. They helped to raise Polaroid to the status of cultural icon.

This month, Polaroid Originals, launched the OneStep+ instant analogue camera which brings analogue instant photography up to date, as it can be connected to a smartphone app, enabling a range of effects.

Back to the future

In 1943, Land’s three-year-old daughter asked her father why she couldn’t immediately see the photograph he had just taken of her. His first instant camera went on sale for $89.95 in 1948, and became the the template for Polaroid cameras for the next 15 years.

Throughout the 50s, the Polaroid empire grew, with products distributed to more than 45 countries. The Polaroid SX-70 camera – the first camera to produce self-developing, colour instant photos – was launched in 1972. Edwin Land also appeared on the cover of Life magazine with his “magic camera”. But, with the swift rise of digital technology eclipsing instant photography by the 2000s, in 2008 Polaroid announced that it was stopping making instant film.

The Enschede Polaroid production plant.

Impossible Project

After the company’s announcement, a group of enthusiasts stepped in, calling themselves the Impossible Project, to buy the world’s last remaining Polaroid film factory, at Enschede in the Netherlands.

Polaroid’s production chain had been abandoned before the Impossible team bought the factory later in 2008. There were no negatives, no dyes and no suppliers to hand. They had to start from scratch, and reinvent the lost recipes for Polaroid film. The company rebranded itself last year as Polaroid Originals after acquiring Polaroid’s brand and intellectual property, and is the only company in the world making film for Polaroid cameras.

In its heyday, when Polaroid was producing 5,000 cameras a day, the Enschede factory produced more than 50m film packs per year and employed many people in the city of Enschede. Several employees who started at the plant in the 1970s still work there.

Andrew Billen, head of global manufacturing at Polaroid Originals, explains some of the key processes in producing Polaroid film.

First, the foil that will carry the developing fluid is prepared. A red dye is applied, which is a kind of semi-permanent adhesive. This allows the paste to remain protected from the air, but will ensure that the pod ruptures correctly when the film is ejecting from the camera, thereby setting off the development process. Then the foil is slit into the exact width needed to make sachet of chemical developing paste called a “pod”.

The developing paste

Depending on the type of negative, a recipe of chemicals is weighed out and placed in a large mixing vessel. It is then heated and blended. The paste is then pumped out into smaller drums ready for the next stage.

The foil is run through a machine where a very small, exact quantity of the developing paste is added then heat sealed into the pod. Pods are loaded into metal trays, which are then transported to the film assembly machines to eventually be laminated to each individual photo frame.

Negative slitters

Rolls of negative are fed through machines with very sharp circular knives, cut to size and then wound on to cardboard cores ready to be loaded into the film assembly machines.

In the dark

Negative materials are light sensitive, so they need to be cut in complete darkness. A special machine is required and its operators wear night-vision googles. Non-light-sensitive materials are cut on a similar machine in the light

To make the film cassettes, black plastic granules are fed into an injection moulding machine, heated until they melt, then injected into a mould cavity. The plastic is then quickly cooled and the cassette is ejected on to a conveyor. Cassettes are then transported to the film assembly machines.

Film assembly

In the final stage, the border mask and sheet are fed into the assembly machine. Here, in darkness, they are joined to the light-sensitive negative.

After going through a series of cutting, folding and laminating processes, a developer pod is fixed to each frame. A stack of eight finished frames is then inserted into a plastic cassette together with a metal spring and (sometimes) a battery. A card known as a “dark slide” is then added to the top of the packs to prevent light corrupting the negative, then the finished plastic cassette is welded shut. The finished pack is inserted into a foil pouch which goes into a cardboard box.

Some of the technicians and operators have worked at the factory for decades

The machines – installed in the 1970s – are completely analogue. Operating and maintaining them requires a great deal of skill and take years to learn. Operators will occasionally need to enter the machine and work for short periods of time in complete darkness. They do this without night-vision googles, completely by feel.

Vintage Polaroid

The factory also purchases vintage Polaroid cameras from all over the world. These are cleaned, repaired and tested. Many date from the 1970s, and spare parts have to come from donor cameras as new spares are not available.

Polaroid cameras refurbished over 50 years including the SX-70 camera. Photograph: Mee-Lai Stone

In the 80s, built-in flash and point-and-shoot capability quickly became one of the most iconic and recognisable Polaroid features. These developments were followed by the introduction of wide-format film for use in professional settings such as medical examinations and police investigations. The 80s also brought a surge of influential users into the world of Polaroid, with artists and photographers such as Mary Ellen Mark, David Hockney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Sarah Moon. More recently, artists including Ryan McGinley and Nobuyoshi Araki have continued to be inspired by the Polaroid creative tradition.

The 80th anniversary of Edwin Land’s original Polaroid company was on 13 September 2017. The date also marked the renaming of the Impossible Project as Polaroid Originals.

The Polaroid Originals OneStep+ camera, launched this month by Polaroid Originals, connects smartphones via bluetooth to an app to access creative tools such as double exposure, light-painting features, plus remote trigger and manual modes. The app also permits use of a secondary portrait lens for close-ups. The new device also has a flash and long-lasting rechargeable battery. You just have to load some film …