Reviving Instant Dreams
My Visit to the Polaroid Factory in Enschede (2013)

In 2013, I had the rare opportunity to step inside the former Polaroid factory in Enschede, the Netherlands. At the time, the site was no longer operated by Polaroid itself. Instead, part of the complex, specifically the North Building, had been taken over by a small but ambitious company known as The Impossible Project. When Polaroid ceased production in the late 2000s, it seemed like the end of an era, not just for the factory, but for instant analog photography as a whole.

But the story didn't end there.

A group of passionate individuals refused to let instant film disappear. Among them was Florian Kaps, an Austrian entrepreneur and one of the founders of The Impossible Project. Together with André Bosman, a former Polaroid plant manager who knew the Enschede facility inside out, and Marwan Saba, a key engineer who would help tackle the enormous technical challenges, they set out to do what many considered impossible: restart instant film production from scratch.

In 2008, The Impossible Project acquired part of the original Polaroid production equipment and began operating out of the factory's North Building. However, they faced a daunting reality, many of the original chemical formulas were gone, suppliers had disappeared, and entire processes had to be reinvented.
Walking through the factory in 2013, I could still feel that sense of challenge and determination in the air. This wasn't just a preserved industrial site, it was a working laboratory of innovation. Machines originally designed decades earlier were being adapted and pushed beyond their original purpose.

The early films produced here were not perfect, they had unpredictable colors, unique textures, and sometimes required careful handling. But that unpredictability became part of their charm. Each photograph felt alive, slightly different, and deeply physical in a way that digital images could never replicate. Visit my Impossible Project Gallery to see what I mean!

Today, the company has evolved into what is now known as Polaroid, bringing the story full circle. But its roots remain here, in Enschede, where a small team proved that even a discontinued technology can find new life when passion, knowledge, and persistence come together.

Read here a very interesting story about the development of Impossible film (by Dan Finnen).
Visit Filmphotgraphy.eu to see the complete overview of all The Impossible Project Films (An awesome database of Instant Film!).

Below you can see the photographs from my visit to the Factory.