introduction

the launch:
LIFE 10.27.72

eames office: SX-70 films

 

The famous architects, Charles and Ray Eames, besides inventing the technology to bend plywood and retain it's strength, and designing the most innovative and lasting contributions to furniture design this century, also were in on the SX-70 phenomena. At the unveiling of the SX-70 at the Polaroid shareholder's meeting in 1972, films by the Eames were shown to illustrate the new technology. This was the first of string of films from the Eames Office for Polaroid Products.

"Four films were made for the Polaroid Corporation. The first, SX-70 (1972), introduced a new 'instant camera.' Four years later, Something About Photography demonstrated how excellent results could be obtained with the SX-70; it also gave Charles a chance to expound his views about the camera as a vital recorder of images and events, the many choices involved in taking a photograph, the added significance of photos shot in a series, and photography truly as a democratic 'art' open to all. Polavision (1977) used six two-and-a-half-minute episodes to demonstrate a new instant movie camera. Besides showing what excellent results could be obtained, this film demonstrated how amateur filmmakers could expand their technical repertoire with animation and stop-motion camera work. Sonar One-Step (1978) demonstrated yet another new camera, in this case one with a sonar based automatic focusing system."

---Pat Kirkham, 1995. Charles and Ray Eames, Designers of the 21st Century

© Pat Kirkham(quote) and Lucia Eames Demetrios d.b.a. Eames Office(images), 1995.