Polaroid:
Éva Fisli, Zsuzsanna Szegedy-Maszák
What is the magic behind Polaroids? When and how did this technology appear in state-socialist Hungary, where access to new photographic equipment from the West were restricted? In which areas was Polaroid photography most widely used, and how did these practices differ from those in the West? How did Polaroid products transform photographic habits? Was it initially an expensive and difficult technology to acquire, or merely a disposable by-product of commercial photography? How were its inherent possibilities exploited in both the pre-digital and digital eras? This book seeks answers to these questions through the discovery and examination of Polaroid photographs preserved in Hungarian public and private collections, as well as through interviews with individuals who, as curators, artists, professional photographers, distributors, or private users, engaged with the photographic products of the Polaroid company in Hungary. Focusing on the period from the 1970s to the early 2010s, the volume traces the successive waves of Polaroid use in Hungary through the distinctive intersections of private, mass, and artistic photographic practices.
Hungarian National Museum
Publication Date: June 2026
