Dare to fail

“Dr.” Edwin Land presenting the Polavision home movie system, in1977.

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.’’

— Edwin Herbert Land (1909-1991) scientist and founder of Polaroid Corporation, founded and based for many years in Cambridge, Mass. (It’s now based in Minnesota.)

He was best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corp. for inventing inexpensive filters for polarizing light, in-camera instant photography, and the retinex theory of color vision, among other things. His Polaroid instant camera went on sale in late 1948 and made it possible for a picture to be taken and developed in 60 seconds or less.

For decades, he was probably the best known figure in Greater Boston’s world renown high-technology sector. He was always called “Dr. Land,’’ although he never got a college undergraduate or advanced degree. Later in his career, though, Harvard gave him an honorary doctorate for his scientific and business achievements.

Polaroid Land (name for Mr., Land) Camera Model 95, the first commercially available instant camera, in 1948.

Meeting as a 'restatement'

Polaroid 80B Highlander instant camera, circa 1959

“I find each new person whom I meet a complete restatement of what life and the world are all about.’’

— Edwin Land (1909-81) inventor and the founder (in Cambridge, Mass., in 1937) of Polaroid and long considered the leading statesman of New England technology