PRESS RELEASE
Silicon Valley startup chaired by Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone helps spark the next phase in Polaroid’s iconic history
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 12, 2016 – Released on the Apple App Store today, the Polaroid Swing app enables people to create and share moving photos on their phones with one easy tap and creates an engaging new visual medium to stand alongside photos and videos. The Polaroid Swing app is the result of a partnership between the venerable Polaroid brand and a Silicon Valley tech startup chaired by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
The moving Polaroid photos capture one-second moments that magically come to life when you touch them or swing your phone. They combine the compositional quality of a still photograph with the vitality of a world that’s always in motion.
The Polaroid Swing app aims to make available a new medium of expression for those with an artistic interest in the world around them. Polaroid Swing moving photos faithfully capture moments as we see them – the crash of the wave, the hair blowing in the wind, the blink of an eye.
Polaroid moving photos can be easily shared on the Polaroid Swing platform and beyond via Facebook, Twitter and web links. Polaroid Swing is available for free on the Apple App Store, with a version for Android coming soon.
“Human beings see the world in short moments, not in stills or videos,” says Tommy Stadlen, Co-Founder of Swing, the startup behind Polaroid Swing. “Memories move, and now photos do too. The product combines Polaroid’s iconic heritage with cutting edge innovation.”
A tech startup backed by a unique partnership with Polaroid
Co-founders Frederick Blackford, a media and sports entrepreneur, and Tommy Stadlen, a tech entrepreneur and former McKinsey consultant, have entered into a partnership with Polaroid to launch the Polaroid Swing app. Swing has quietly assembled world-class engineering and design talent. Its R&D lab in San Francisco is centered around a team of former Apple engineers and computer vision experts from MIT.
Photographer and Litely founder Cole Rise, who designed Instagram’s original filters and logo, oversees creative direction as the artist in residence for the Polaroid Swing app. He has fostered a community of artists who have shaped the new Polaroid medium in a highly secretive beta testing period.
“Polaroid Swing has the potential to change the way we think about images, just like Twitter’s 140 characters changed how we think about words,” says Biz Stone, Chairman of Swing and Co-Founder of Twitter. “People will start seeing the world in one second moments. It’s a genre-defining medium.”
Scott W. Hardy, President and CEO of Polaroid, says: “At Polaroid, we see ourselves as curators of innovation. We are delighted to collaborate with the extraordinary Polaroid Swing app team to help usher in a new era of sharing life’s most memorable moments in an instant – which has always been at the very heart of Polaroid’s iconic DNA.”
Download Polaroid Swing for iPhone at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/polaroid-swing/id1035142291
The Polaroid Brand
Polaroid is one of the most trusted, well-respected and recognizable brands with a rich 75-year history beginning with Polaroid instant film. For more information, visit Polaroid.com.
Polaroid, Polaroid & Pixel, Polaroid Color Spectrum, Polaroid Swing and Polaroid Classic Border Logo are trademarks of PLR IP Holdings, LLC.
About Swing
Swing aims to re-imagine photography for the mobile era, by enabling people to create and share moving photos on their phones. Swing is co-founded by Frederick Blackford and Tommy Stadlen, and has partnered with Polaroid, along with a select group of top tier investors including Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, who serves as Chairman. Visit www.PolaroidSwing.com.
