Polaroid Photobooths & Factory: A&A Studios Project Archive

A&A Studios Project Archive: HISTORY: When The Impossible Project (TIP) took on the insane task of reinventing Polariod Film, A&A Studios was one of the first “Impossible Project Partners” in the US. Somewhere around 2011, TIP tasked A&A Studios with collecting and resurrecting some of the early 1990’s Capcom USA Polaroid Photobooths. The first batch of these booths was procured from a Wayandotte, Michigan storage unit (sold by Ray Heinbokel Jr. of Midwest Camera Repair). We dragged a truck load of these photobooths back to our shop where we proceeded to repair and adapt the TIP film (Spectra) to work in these booths. As part of the project, we were invited to visit the old Polaroid factory in Enschede – just about 2hrs east of Amsterdam. It was a fascinating experience that shall never be forgotten! The huge factory and film machines were being run by a skeleton crew while the lab techs tried to figure out the perfect emulsions and various factors to make a better film. (For those of you who tried the early iterations – you know how challenging it was to shoot with). After 3 years of storing these booths for TIP, the project seemed to stall due to TIP upper management changes. At some point during (or prior) to the transition to “Polaroid Originals”, TIP ran out of money or inspiration to carry out the project further. We were instructed by TIP to get 3-4 cabinets operational, gut the rest for parts, then send the parts and working booths to TIP’s US storage. Some of the gutted cabinets ended up being recycled or resold for digital conversion. ((One of the working Polaroid booths went to Third Man Records Detroit record shop)). After that, whereabouts of the remaining operational booths are unknown. Nevertheless, it was a fun project and we had a great time! Hopefully someday we will see a Polaroid Photobooth again in the wild. One can always dream.