instant photography
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of instant photography
First recorded in 1975–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Samaras discovered instant photography in 1969, but it wasn’t until 1973 that he could begin what he called his “Photo-transformations”—physically distorted Polaroids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
According to Polaroid President and CEO Scott W. Hardy, while instant photography may have left the limelight, it never really disappeared.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2017
Besides fire, he’s also invented shoes, a rough form of instant photography and the domestication of wildlife: a monkey named Belt that holds up Guy’s pants.
From Time ● Mar. 22, 2013
He credited the saying to Mark Twain, though evidence points to Edwin H. Land, the inventor of Polaroid instant photography.
From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2011
The Polaroid camera was the invention of Edwin H. Land, whose revolutionary 1948 technology for instant photography was not matched until the arrival of the digital camera almost 40 years later.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 12, 2010
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
