Din 103

Edwin Land, circa 1981.

It’s Edwin Land’s 103rd birthday, and here he is, in a couple of Polaroid portraits. The distance shot is outside the Osborn Street laboratories in Cambridge; as for the closeup, I’m not sure who the other guy is, but I really hope he doesn’t have that tie anymore.

Land and colleague. (Click to enlarge.)

The dates are educated guesses. I put the shot on Osborn Street around 1981, because although I can’t quite ID that car in the background, it’s a GM product of about 1979 or 1980, and Land left Polaroid in 1982. The other photo might be a little earlier, because the reagant spread in the corners is imperfect, suggesting that this was test film. (Maybe a Time Zero test? Anyone know?)

Also born on May 7: Tchaikovsky, Johnny Unitas, Eva Peron.