Edwin Land was asked by his young daughter in 1943 why she couldn't see a photo they had just taken immediately. An hour later, the American researcher and inventor had developed the technical foundations to fulfill this seemingly impossible wish. This marked the beginning of the story of Polaroid instant photography. Soon, many artists also recognized the exciting new possibilities: for example, when Hockney created a still life mosaic from individual photos, Charles Eames captured geometric patterns, Dennis Hopper conducted color studies in Los Angeles, and Robert Mapplethorpe made nude self-portraits. Thousands of Polaroid photographs from the hands of artists shaped the art world in the late 20th century, with works by Ansel Adams, Nobuyoshi Araki, Sybille Bergemann, Brigid Berlin, Anne and Bernhard Blume, Chuck Close, Walker Evans, Federico Fellini, and Arno Fischer.