《捕捉瞬间：宝丽来的故事》（Instant: The Story of Polaroid）是一本很薄的小册子，只有192页，但它读起来却像是3本书：首先，它以充满事实的内容，极其生动地描述了埃德温•兰德（当然还包括他建立的那家令人难以置信的公司）的一生及其所处的时代；其词，它简明扼要地讲述了宝丽来公司（Polaroid）从鼎盛时期沦落至破产境地（不是一次，而是两次）的凄美故事；再次，这本书还收集了知名艺术家使用宝丽来相机拍摄的数量不多，但非常精美的摄影作品。

    克里斯托弗•波南斯撰写的这本经过充分研究、质量上乘的著作收录了安迪•沃霍尔为丽莎•明妮莉拍摄的一张绝妙照片、查克•克洛斯和罗伯特•梅普尔索普的自画像、一张大卫•霍克尼拼贴画，以及沃克•埃文斯、安德烈•凯尔泰斯和威廉•韦格曼的摄影作品。这本书还收录了几张出自安塞尔•亚当斯之手的摄影作品。1949年，当宝丽来公司首次进入摄影领域时，亚当斯被聘为该公司顾问，月薪100美元。他的建议极大地影响了宝丽来胶片和相机的外观和感官。

    科•伦特米斯特为1972年《生活》杂志（life）一篇题为《一个天才和他的魔术相机》（A Genius and his Magic Camera.）的报道拍摄的一张照片，是书中最令人回味无穷的摄影作品之一。这张照片捕捉的是兰德为一群孩子介绍新SX-70相机那一幕。这张照片刊登于《时代》杂志（Time），用于讲述SX-70相机首次亮相的封面报道。照片出自一位名为艾尔弗雷德•艾森斯塔特的后起之秀之手。

    这些头条新闻背后的故事发轫于1928年。那一年，18岁的兰德离开哈佛大学（Harvard University），着手发明世界上第一种合成偏光镜。通过与一位前教授合作，他将自己的发明转化成了太阳镜和汽车大灯制造商用以减少眩光的薄片偏光膜。

    上世纪40年代，宝丽来公司转换经营领域，为美国陆军生产了数百万副护目镜，同时还为美军飞机提供轰炸瞄准器。传说在1943年临近结束的一天，3岁的珍妮弗•兰德问她的爸爸，她为什么看不到他刚刚用禄来福来相机（Rolleiflex）拍摄的一张照片。

    兰德花了好几个小时揣摩出如何做女儿想要的东西的办法。随后的4年中，他一直在思考如何把照相机、胶片、显像剂以及他所构想的数百个其他难题有效地结合在一起。

    1947年2月，兰德在美国光学学会（Optical Society of America）于纽约举行的一个会议上首次披露了他的研究成果。《纽约时报》（The New York Times）和《生活》杂志大张旗鼓地报道了这项成果，但又过了20个月，第一部真正的相机（名为Model 95、重达4磅的笨重玩意儿）才正式上市。这款定价89.75美元的相机一上市就受到了公众的青睐。

    后来为宝丽来胶片提供负片乳胶层的伊士曼柯达公司（Eastman Kodak）也非常喜欢这款产品。柯达公司当时发表评论称，“任何对摄影有利的事物都对柯达有利。”这家公司那时绝对不相信，一款被其视为古玩的产品将会演变为一门年收入高达20亿美元的生意。

    宝丽来相机最初拍摄的照片非常小，呈褐色，并不十分稳定，绝对称不上优雅。宝丽来公司很快就学会了如何产生出清晰的黑白色图像。又过了一段时间，颜色丰富的彩色胶片问世了，笨重的第一代相机逐渐让位于最终被我们所有人视为理所当然的流线形机身。

    Instant: The Story of Polaroid clocks in at a slim 192 pages, but it manages to be three books in one: a thoroughly charming, fact-filled stroll through the life and times of Edwin Land and the incredible company he built; a brief, poignant recap of Polaroid's plunge from the heights into not one but two wrenching bankruptcies; and a small but lovely collection of Polaroid images taken by well-known artists.

    Christopher Bonanos's well-researched and well-written book features a terrific Andy Warhol photo of Liza Minnelli, self-portraits by Chuck Close and Robert Mapplethorpe, and a David Hockney collage, along with photos by Walker Evans, Andre Kertesz, and William Wegman. It also includes several photos by Ansel Adams, who signed on as a $100-a-month Polaroid consultant in 1949, when the company made its first move into photography. His recommendations strongly influenced the look and feel of Polaroid's films and cameras.

    Co Rentmeester shot one of the most evocative pictures in the book for a 1972 Life magazine story titled "A Genius and his Magic Camera." The photo captures Land putting Polaroid's new SX-70 through its paces for a group of children. The photo that accompanied Time magazine's cover story on the debut of the SX-70 was taken by an up-and-comer named Alfred Eisenstaedt.

    The story behind these headlines started in 1928, when Land left Harvard and set about inventing the world's first synthetic polarizer. He was 18. Teaming up with a former professor, he turned his invention into thin sheets of polarized film that manufacturers of sunglasses and auto headlights used to cut glare.

    In the 1940s, Polaroid shifted gears and churned out millions of pairs of goggles for the Army, along with bombsight optics for U.S. military aircraft. In late 1943, legend has it, three-year-old Jennifer Land asked her father why she couldn't see a picture he had just taken with his Rolleiflex.

    Land spent several hours roughing out ways to do what his daughter wanted and the next four years figuring out exactly how the camera, film, developer, and hundreds of other pieces of the puzzle he was constructing would fit together.

    The results were unveiled in February 1947 at an Optical Society of America meeting in New York. The New York Times and Life played it up big, but it took another 20 months before the first actual cameras -- big, bulky four-pounders called Model 95 -- made it to market. They were priced at $89.75, and the public loved them.

    So did Eastman Kodak, which signed on to provide the negative layers for the Polaroid film. "Anything that is good for photography is good for Kodak," is how the company put it at the time, never believing for a moment that a product it saw as a curio would turn into a $2-billion-a-year business.

    The first Polaroid pictures were small, brownish, not terribly stable, and anything but elegant. The company soon learned how to produce crisp black-and-white images. Rich color film appeared a little while later, and the clunkiness of the first cameras gave way to the sleek, streamlined bodies we all eventually took for granted.

    2001年11月12号《财富》杂志（Fortune）曾经刊登过一篇回顾性的文章。记者大卫•惠特福德在文中这样写道：“30年来，兰德及其麾下那些聪明的研究人员一直在马萨诸塞州坎布里奇市实验室潜心完善摄影技术。甚至在如今已经产生技术疲惫的孩子和成人看来，这种把戏依然至酷无比，简直不可思议。”

    兰德是一位干劲十足、极其看重质量的管理者，亲身参与了产品开发的每个步骤，还向加入其团队的工程师、科学家和化学家提出了越来越多的要求。他一向是一位有远见的人。1970年，在谈到未来的相机时，他将其描述为“一件总是伴随人们左右的事物”，一种可以径直从口袋掏出来，对准目标直接拍摄的设备。

    兰德还是一位终极推销员。每逢宝丽来公司的年度会议，他总会步入一个空荡荡的舞台中央，向提供背景音乐的音乐家挥手致意，然后一边走动，一边介绍该公司最新推出的产品。如果这一幕听起来有些熟悉的话，那绝不是什么巧合。另一位大学辍学生史蒂夫•乔布斯创建了一家在许多方面类似于宝丽来的公司。他经常说，埃德温•兰德是他的榜样和偶像。

    并不是所有人都坚信宝丽来的价值。它最大的批评者来自华尔街，他们很难认同宝丽来公司在上世纪70年代高耸入云的估值，该公司当时的市盈率高达90倍。事实最终证明，这些批评者是正确的。这家公司进军电影业务的主打产品、宝丽来自动显像电影摄影机（Polavision）最终败给了录像机。兰德退休之后，新任CEO和新产品相继出现，但Pronto!、OneShot、Spectra和其他背负着沉重塑料的宝丽来下线产品，几乎跟经典的SX-70相机（由皮革和金属制成）没有任何相似之处。

    1976年，柯达公司推出了自己的即时相机和胶卷，影像产业的格局进一步混乱。1990年，宝丽来公司赢得了其有史以来规模最大的专利侵权案，获赔9.09亿美元，但这笔赔偿金实在是杯水车薪，而且已经为时晚矣。当时，一小时照片冲印店已经出现，随后来临的则是终极游戏规则改变者——数码摄影。

    2001年10月13日，在911恐怖袭击爆发的一个月后，深陷债务、无力回击数码相机挑战的宝丽来公司申请破产。此后，宝丽来公司几经转手，其中一次甚至被卖给了明尼阿波利斯州一家只对其地产、艺术收藏和商标感兴趣的公司。后来，这个买家的老板因操作庞氏骗局（Ponzi）被判入狱50年之后，宝丽来公司不得不第二次申请破产。

    本书结尾部分用一章的篇幅简明扼要地介绍了宝丽来公司最后几年的历史，以及最后一个以宝丽来命名的产品——“不可能的FPU（胶片处理器）”。波南斯介绍说，宝丽来商标当前的拥有者“不懂埃德温•兰德”。这一句，便已足以说明一切。

    《财富》书签（Weekly Read）专栏专门刊载《财富》杂志（Fortune）编辑团队的书评，解读商界及其他领域的新书。我们每周都会选登一篇新的评论。本文作者劳伦斯•A•阿莫尔是《时代》（Time）、《财富》、《理财》（Money）和《体育画报》（Sports Illustrated）等杂志个性化内容的副主编。

    译者：任文科

    In a look-back piece in our November 12, 2001 issue, Fortune's David Whitford put it this way: "For three decades Land and the brilliant researchers in his Cambridge, Mass. laboratory were consumed with perfecting a trick that even today, in the eyes of techno-weary children and grownups alike, is more than cool -- it's magical."

    Land, a driven manager and a stickler for quality, was there at every step, demanding more and more from the engineers, scientists and chemists who joined the team. He was always a visionary. In 1970 he discussed the camera of the future, describing it as "something that was always with you," a device that you would simply take out of your pocket, point, and shoot.

    Land was also the ultimate salesman. At Polaroid's annual meetings he would move to the center of an empty stage, wave to the musicians who were backing his performance, and put the company's latest products through their paces. If any of this sounds familiar, it's no coincidence. Steve Jobs, another college dropout who built a company that resembles Polaroid in many respects, often described Edwin Land as a role model and hero.

    Not everyone believed in Polaroid. Its biggest critics were on Wall Street, which had a hard time buying Polaroid's lofty valuations during the 1970s, when the shares sold for 90 times earnings. Eventually the skeptics were proven right. Polavision, the company's entry into the motion picture business, got clobbered by video. Land retired. New CEOs and new products appeared, but Pronto!, OneShot, Spectra, and the other plastic-heavy Polaroids that rolled off the assembly line bore little if any resemblance to the classy leather-and-metal SX-70.

    The picture was further muddied in 1976 when Kodak introduced its own line of instant cameras and film. In 1990 Polaroid was awarded $909 million in the biggest patent-infringement judgment in history, but it was much too little and much too late. By then one-hour photo labs had arrived on the scene, followed by the ultimate game-changer: digital photography.

    Deep in debt and lacking the firepower needed to compete in digital, Polaroid filed for bankruptcy on October 13, 2001, a month after the September 11 attacks. The company has since been sold and resold several times, including one sale to a Minneapolis company that was interested in its real estate, art collection, and name. After the head of that firm was sentenced to 50 years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme, Polaroid filed for a second bankruptcy.

    The company's last few years are covered in a slim chapter at the end of the book, along with a look at the Impossible FPU (for film processing unit), the latest in a long line of products to carry the Polaroid name. According to Bonanos, the current owner of the Polaroid label "doesn't know much about Edwin Land." And that, in a nutshell, says it all.

    Our Weekly read column features Fortune staffers' and contributors' takes on recently published books about the business world and beyond. We've invited the entire Fortune family -- from our writers and editors to our photo editors and designers -- to weigh in on books of their choosing based on their individual tastes or curiosities. Lawrence A. Armour is deputy editor of custom content for Fortune, Time, Money, and Sports Illustrated.