Gallery Talk: The 20 × 24 Polaroid Process
Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
The process of creating an instant image in color with the 20 × 24 Polaroid camera is highly sophisticated. This talk will delve into the chemical magic that takes place to make such photographs, including Elsa Dorfman’s portrait of Barbara Norfleet, as well as the origin of the process here in Cambridge. This talk is offered in conjunction with the exhibition The Way We Never Were: The American Professional Photographers Collection, on view from August 29, 2026 to May 9, 2027. Led by: Tatiana Cole, Conservator of Photographs, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Funding for the exhibition and related programming was provided by the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Fund for Photography and the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. , Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.