Here are some additional links and resources related to the feature article in the January 2021 Optics & Photonics News.
The Experiment’s history
- E.J. Morgan. “The world is watching: Polaroid and South Africa,” Enterprise & Society 7, 520 (2006)—A historical and business review of the Polaroid Experiment, its genesis and its mixed outcomes.
The Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement
The birth and activities of the Movement and its founders have spawned a range of interesting accounts.
- “The Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement,” Brought to You By … podcast (Business Insider), 12 August 2020.
- African Activist Archive: The Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement, Michigan State University. Valuable archive of primary documents related to the Movement’s activities and Polaroid’s response.
- C.Y. Buysse. “Activists waged anti-apartheid fight in ’70s,” Bay State Banner, 24 August 2010.
- “The Coolest Black Family in America, No. 19: The Hunter/Williamses,” Ebony, 24 June 2013—Profile of Caroline Hunter and Ken Williams, founders of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement.
- A. Ramirez. “How two African-American employees exposed Polaroid’s role in apartheid South Africa,” excerpt from A. Ramirez, The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another (MIT, 2020) [NPR Science Friday website]
- “What is ethical?: The case of Polaroid,” excerpt from Confronting Apartheid (Facing History and Ourselves, 2020).
- M. McCanne. “When Polaroid workers fought apartheid,” Dissent, 14 August 2020.
Technology and embedded bias
- L. Roth. “Looking at Shirley, the ultimate norm: Color balance, image technologies, and cognitive equity,” Can. J. Commun. 34, 111 (2009)—Study of biases embedded in early Kodak color-balance cards.
- D. Smith. “ ‘Racism’ of early color photography explored in art exhibition,” The Guardian, 25 January 2013—News report of the art exhibition “To Photograph the Details of a Dark Horse in Low Light,” which explored racial biases in the photographic medium.
- D. Harwell. “Federal study confirms racial bias of many facial-recognition systems, casts doubt on their expanding use,” Washington Post, 19 December 2019.