Say Cheese!

Inventor Edwin Land's Polaroid camera was first sold to the public during this week in November 1948.

The camera used film that had a one-step developing process to create finished photos in only one minute! Since then, artists have made the most of this amazing advance in photographic technology.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has several Polaroid photographs in its collection.This panorama by Lucas Samaras is an assemblage of dozens of individual Polaroid prints that Samaras shot of himself in his studio on November 26, 1984. The photos were cut and taped together in twenty-eight strips to make the finished artwork.

Pictured: Lucas Samaras, born 1936 Greece, Panorama, 11/26/84, 1984, polaroid print assemblage, 9 1/2 x 35 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.