My name is Christopher Bonanos. Hi there.
This site was built to accompany my first full-length book, INSTANT: THE STORY OF POLAROID, which was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2012. You can order it from a great local bookstore here.
Since then, I’ve written FLASH: THE MAKING OF WEEGEE THE FAMOUS, the first biography of the great American photographer Arthur (Weegee) Fellig. It was published by Henry Holt in June 2018 and has since come out in paperback from Picador USA, and won the National Book Critics Circle award for the best biography of the year. The New York Times critic Jennifer Szalai called it “the biography Weegee deserves: sympathetic and comprehensive, a scrupulous account with just the right touch of irreverence,” Thomas Mallon, in The New Yorker, said that Weegee “has at last acquired a biographer who can keep up with him.” It’s now available in paperback from Picador USA. You can order it from that same great local bookstore here.
I’ve also contributed essays to four graphic-design books published by Standards Manual. You can see them (and also buy them) here.
You can also find an essay of mine in in THE POLAROID PROJECT: AT THE INTERSECTION OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY, the catalogue for a great exhibition of Polaroid photographs and artifacts. (Order it here.) I also wrote a small book about Greek-American culture called GODS, HEROES, AND PHILOSOPHERS: A CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS GREEK. It’s out of print, but secondhand copies are not hard to find.
In my daily life, I’m an editor at New York magazine, where I work on coverage of culture (theater, classical music, architecture) and also some other subjects, like urbanism and real estate. I’ve been at the magazine since 1993, which is so long ago that, when I began there, I did not have a computer on my desk. I was the main writer on the magazine’s fiftieth-anniversary celebration volume, HIGHBROW, LOWBROW, BRILLIANT, DESPICABLE: 50 YEARS OF NEW YORK.
I have written about subjects as various as One World Trade Center, the stuff on the bottom of New York Harbor, and bad bagels. Also, a tiny story I wrote for New York in 2008 was the germ of this book.
I have written for other outlets as well, including The New York Times and Slate. I also spent a year aboard Dadwagon, a dad-blogging site that continues to run in the hands of my co-founders.
My first Polaroid camera was a Model 900, purchased in a secondhand-book store and antiques shop in Cranbury, New Jersey, around 1982. (It cost me $3, negotiated down from $5.) Even then, the camera was a weird old half-obsolete thing, requiring Polaroid roll film, which by then was growing difficult to find. I used it until the film went out of production in 1992. Since then, I have owned many (too many) Polaroid cameras, some as objects and some as working tools. These days, I shoot mostly Polaroid Originals film in an SLR 680 and, on occasion, my dwindling stash of Fuji pack film in a Model 180.
I live in New York City with an amazing, excellent wife. We have a kid, and he appears in hundreds of Polaroid photos.
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Christopher,
I have been waiting for your book. Thank you for your work.
I have been involved in a pleasurable and fruitful relationship with Polaroid film for many years (laleike.tumblr.com). Continues today with 350 camera and Fuji’s instant film.
Best regards,
Dave LaLeike
A pleasure to see your site, and thank you for the compliments. Keep shooting Fuji pack film, especially: It’s the only way we’re going to keep them making it.
Instant gratification, spreading the gospel. Gave you a shout out on my site. Good fortune to you and your book.
I’m really waiting for my copy to arrive! Working at Polaroid for Dr. Land, Peter Wensberg, Ted Voss and with incredible creative talent at Doyle Dane Bernbach with the likes of Phyllis Robinson,Bob Gage, Jack Dillon, Helmut Krone, Paul Margulies, and Stu Hyatt to name just a few, in the 70s and early 80s, was truly one of my greatest experiences. Being a part of Polaroid helped shaped not just my view of business, but my view of the world around me through a unique lens, where I could see and share on the spot with people I cared for. Thanks for keeping the spirit alive, Chris PS: I even remember Cathie Black’s first sales call to us to have Polaroid run in New York
Fantastic–I wish I’d found you when I was doing my research! What exactly did you do in Peter and Ted’s marketing group?
Wow! I just saw this as I was doing some research on my new start-up! I was an ad manager – Peter was really my “Rabbi” there. I worked on the SX-70 camera campaigns, SX-Film, Corporate Quality advertising, I was part of the launch team for the sonar technology while it was still a gigantic breadboard the size of a filing cabinet attached by long wires to a camera called “project 2806”. Later I worked on OneStep and when those sales started moving south, I created the camera called “The Button” focused on the teenaged market and had to prove to the Polaroid world that teens would and could buy a Polaroid camera with their own money in the early ’80s. I also worked on Polaroid Sunglasses where I tied fashion to function. I did some other stuff every so often in med tech and created the outreach program using Polaroid OneStep and film to teach English as a second language. My swan song was coming up with the idea – and then being ordered to find the brace of dogs given to Dr. Land at Symphony Hall on his retirement at the Shareholder meeting (and keeping it a secret).
So, here we are, decades later, and not only is my “limited edition” gold plated SX-70 Sonar OneStep once again operational, but my newest business (really a reinvention of my consulting business) is a partnership with a person I worked with for a short period of time in 1976 and was actually replacing at Polaroid – Joe Dell’ Aquila. We’re partners and friends.
Chris, there is nothing, truly nothing like Polaroid out in the world. There is nothing to allow people to see and share memories on the spot with people they love and care about. There’s no film technology that allows true visual creativity to blossom. it’s in your hands to get young people charged up all around the globe over Polaroid (how’s that for Jewish guilt – and everyone who’s a New Yorker is partially Jewish by definition – just to take advantage of a religious alt side of street parking space).
What I don’t understand, is why, especially with a new CEO at the helm of the retail division, that a white OneStep renamed the Polaroid iStep has not shown up at Apple headquarters for exclusive sales. Or why a CrewStep has not shown up at Mickey Drexler’s offices for sale at J Crew stores. Both of those customer bases are Polaroid. If I were still around I would have gotten some people to rustle up a couple of prototypes and done it without telling anyone 🙂 .
PS Any time you want to talk and maybe get out of The City, I live in Weston, CT backing up on a 1700 acre nature preserve with a home office. I can pick you up at the Westport station (and when you are ready to leave the Big Apple because your son doesn’t know what cut grass smells like, Weston has great public schools ( my wife is principal of the 3-5 intermediate school and even Keith Richard’s daughters went all the way through K-12)
I may be slightly biased but this is an inspirational and compelling tale. If you have coworkers who enjoy reading tell them to get the book. More importantly, tell your boss/employer to read the book.
Not to get too political, but I would say it behooves any presidential candidate to call on Land’s ethos (maybe quote a speech or two that Land delivered to his employees) to light a fire under the ass of this country or any other of the planet.
A bit idealistic? Probably. But the book gave me goosebumps.
We need goosebumps, baby.
Regarding photos in the book: I’ll wonder, was it only Dr. Land that was allowed to lean on McCune’s Porsche?
How did you come by the Lange-Adams photos?
One more, did you attend the Sotheby’s auction of the Polaroid collection from two years ago?
Ah, so kind of you to say. If you are so inclined, Amazon reviews are wide open.
Land and Porsche: I suspect Land was the only one confident enough to just do it.
Lange/Adams: I found one photo in Adams’s book on Polaroid Land photography, and asked the archivist to look for it. She couldn’t find it, but she did discover an album of prints from that day with Lange, and I loved them–would’ve run more if the budget and page count had allowed it.
Sotheby’s: I went to the viewing hours and soaked up some time with the collection, and I watched the auction progress online, but I wasn’t in the room when the hammer went down.
The founder of impossible film was so inspired by the artist Stefanie Schneider that when he found the last factory in Holland, he bought it. (with a little help from his friends) There has been no other with a longer span of dedicated Polaroid art. Check it out at http://www.instantdreams.net or see the movie “The girl behind the white picket fence” at http://www.heatherdreams.com
LOVE LOVE LOVE your book. I did Corporate videos for Polaroid in the early 80’s and I owned MANY of their cameras. But I still have the land Model 150 in mint condition. Your book brought back so many GREAT memories for me and gave me insight I had no idea about. What an amazing journey he had. THANK YOU for this book!!!
I am looking for Wolfe ,Eelko
Hi Jane, Eelco Wolf lives in Vero Beach, Fl. You can contact him on Facebook or LinkedIn. I worked with Eelco when I was Polaroid ad manager in the 70s and early 80s.
I came across this book a couple of weeks ago, which is now several years after publication. I enjoyed reading it because, in the mid-1970s, my boyfriend at the time worked for Polaroid, first in Waltham and then in a lab with Howie Rogers in Cambridge. I remember a day when he had an SX-70 to test so we went over by the Charles River in Allston, along with another Polaroid employee, to take photos with it. The book brought back lots of great memories.
Meroë was my half sister. I worked at Polaroid summer of 62 and lived with Meroë. I’m 80 now with limited income. Could you possibly give me your book on Polaroid? Julia Morse
Unless I somehow missed a mention of Polaroid instant slide film, why wasn’t it part of your book?
Very much enjoyed your book “Instant”. I am a lifelong photographer shooting ; Nikon,Canon,Leica,Hasselblad & Fuji , when asked “your favorite camera ?” my response will always be POLARIOD , any Polariod . I admire your Polariod-enthuiism . I retired from our very successful studio business (series of back problems) which my son JP Elario also a Polariod guy (jpelario / instagram )has taken over a few years back . So now I’ve become most interested in anything Polaroid , I own many models (just recently the Polariod I-2 ) also the Polariod Lab which is an incredible tool. I have stored about 60 peel-a-pac products. I have both shot/been photographed with the 20 24 .
I have always been most interested in JFK’s Dallas death & was blown away when learning just last year the Polariod image taken by Mary Ann Moorman & her Polaroid of JFK’s head being blown-away at the exact moment . I now wonder if Dr. Land was aware of this ?
That camera was not developed for that type of photography – yet she captured it . . just fucking amazing .
FYI, a few years back I visited Dr.Lands grave & pulled up some of the English Ivy , planted here at my Albany home . . it continues to flourish !
Please continue what you do so well Chris , wishing you a Healthy Successful 2024 . Thank you.