Instant photography takes birth today

February 21, On This Day

Instant imagery

For the very first time on February 21, 1947, inventor Edwin Land demonstrated the Land Camera to a meeting of the Optical Society of America in New York City. Today, you may know it better by its more popular name — the Polaroid Camera. Using developer and fixer contained in sacs with the film and photographic paper in a layered packet, the first Polaroid camera could produce a black-and-white photo in 60 seconds. Polaroid art, whether manipulated or simply compiled or crafted into an installation and more, is all now part of the modern artistic movement.

Peace!

The universal symbol for ‘peace’ was reportedly officially presented on February 21, 1958 to the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and was “immediately accepted” as a symbol for a march from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire. It was designed by British artist Gerald Holtom, a graduate of the Royal College of Art and a conscientious objector during World War II. The symbol is actually a combination of the letters CND (the N is the ‘triangle’ in the middle). Eventually, it became known an international symbol of peace.