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| New55 FILM inventor Bob Crowley |
Thank you to the helpers who put this together. I really appreciate it. Bob
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New55 FILM ends
regular production
Crowley Comments on
Conclusion of New55 Project
Ashland, MA December
13, 2017
Instant film maker
New55 Holdings, LLC announced today the conclusion of film production
and sales stemming from The New55 Project that started in January of
2010. Founding members Bob Crowley, Sam Hiser and Charles Fendrock
are pursuing a new photographic mission focused on the origins and
future directions of post-digital instant photography. “Legacy
products are sort of like oldies music” said Bob Crowley, who
started the project in his R&D laboratory seven years ago. “It
is a great field to learn, but it is more important to discover or
create something new.” Crowley often talks about his lab's research
into the origins of instant photography that uncovered secrets that
had been hidden; “It's a story most people don't know except for
the corporate lines. A woman named Edith Weyde made the first instant
photographs in the 1930s, and today her work has been rediscovered.
It fills in many of the missing pieces that were omitted.”
In the 1930s, AGFA
of Germany developed the diffusion transfer reversal system which is
the basis for the instant print. Once the war was over, German
technology was captured and offered to American companies through the
government's Joint Objectives Committee, of which Polaroid was an
interested party. When Crowley began searching for technical details
of how the instant process works, he found it in Weyde's writings
which were in a book he got from the Polaroid library when it was
sold off. “It's amazing she was never mentioned” says Crowley,
who believes that women inventors have been generally forgotten in
many fields.
Over the course of
the interview, Crowley produced a “hit list” of accomplishments
he says summarizes what New55 did. (published with permission)
“During the project, the team of only three employees and two
volunteers:
Invented a hand assembly system that is fast, convenient and
requires no darkroom. Two assemblers produced over 60,000 units of
instant film!
Developed a peelapart color system using a negative taken from
integral films and showed excellent results that could lead to color
large format instant prints.
Invented a new instant color system that could obviate products
produced by Fujifilm, Kodak and others if developed and
commercialized.
Built a high performance coating system out of surplus parts that
exceeded results from expensive commercial coaters. Followed that and
quickly achieved a good print using simple equipment made by the
team.
Proposed a practical packfilm replacement system project that was
kept internally.
Created several new products such as R5 Monobath, Atomic-X sheet
film, 1SHOT ready loaded sheet films aimed at analog photographers
Ran active twitter, facebook and instagram pages
Ran many workshops and produced numerous “how-to” tutorials.
Ran the New55 blog which will be left up so that historians can
revisit the project.
New55 FILM was used to photograph Kate Moss, Johnny Depp, Stella
McCartney and used by famous photographers like David Bailey and Jay
Clendinin.
Assembled an impressive and new intellectual property portfolio
that details processes that are greener, use much less toxic
materials, lower waste and contribute to sustainability of analog
photo materials.
Got to the bottom of the market size and shares owned by the
larger film companies and shared this intel with our allies.
Balanced the print and the negative! Users will know what this
means!
Discovered the invention of the instant photograph process in a
surprising place; The wonderful German scientist Edith Weyde who
invented the instant photo process used today and serves as a role
model to many, and began the restoration of a truthful and accurate
account of the history of instant photography away from corporate
fingers and marketing campaigns.”
Of this last
discovery, Crowley said, the team is actually most proud, as it seems
timely and right that this important inventor is finally getting the
recognition she deserves. “The process we use is straight out of
Edith Weyde's work and with the exception of our all water-based
process improvements in the name of environmental safety, would seem
very familiar to what she invented in the 1930s!”
On what will happen
to the remaining New55 technology, Crowley is philosophic: “There
is obviously more to it than meets the eye, much of it has never been
discussed widely in public because we had only very limited funding.
There's a lot there. We've just put it all in a box for now.”
