L Land, Edwin H 150 In 1945, Edwin H Land (1909­1991) was already a successful businessman and research scientist, having founded the Polaroid Corporation on his development of a synthetic light-polarising material. On a trip, Land's young daughter asked why they could not see the pictures she'd taken straight away. Within a few hours, Land devised the necessary physical chemistry for instant photography and, by 1948, presented the world's first self-developing camera system. His SX-70 in 1972 was another world first ­ a fully automatic, motorised, folding SLR camera that ejected self-developing, self-timed colour prints. His instant movie system, however, was financially disastrous and he resigned from the Polaroid Corporation to pursue pure research, expanding his Retinex theory of vision.