MARKETING: Polaroid's Big Gamble on Small Cameras

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For the foreseeable future, the majority of American amateurs still appear to want a simple, basic instrument for taking pictures, the kind that Kodak and Polaroid have consistently been first to provide. Does that mean that amateur photography will always be a minor craft, an exercise in using ever simpler cameras to take ever more pictures of babies, barbecues and baseball games but little else? Edwin Land does not think so. "Every good picture we take —one that is taken with care—should make our lives that much bigger," he says. "Photography is an illustration of the use of technology not to estrange, but to reveal and unite people."