PX 680 Color Shade FF might not mean a lot to most people, but for a dedicated few who love instant photography, it represents the dawn of a new era.

The Impossible Project was born out of the ashes of the Polaroid Company. Polaroid filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and was subsequently purchased by a subsidiary of Bank One, Petters Group Worldwide. Under the administration of Tom Petters, the renamed Polaroid Corp. halted production of instant film around 2004, after ordering the factories to produce enough instant film to last until 2013. The machines that made the Polaroid negatives were dismantled and sold, and Polaroid Corp. stopped selling Polaroid cameras in 2007.

What they had not expected was the rise in demand for Polaroid instant products after 2004. Around 2007, Polaroid began running out of the Polaroid negatives they needed to make instant film, but they couldn’t make new negatives because the machines that produced them no longer existed.

In February 2008, Polaroid announced that they would no longer produce or sell analog film. To top it all off, Tom Petters was convicted for his role in a Ponzi scheme. It seemed that since the beginning of the new millennium, Polaroid was cursed.

During the closing of a Polaroid factory in Enschede, Netherlands, Austrian artist, businessman and leading manager of the Lomographic Society, Dr. Florian Kaps, met André Bosman, who was a part of the managing team at Polaroid as well as an engineering manager who had worked with Polaroid since 1980. Their rejection of the end of instant photography gave birth to the aptly named Impossible Project. And impossible it was: They needed to find financial backers, equipment to start making film again, and a lot of time because the original chemicals used in Polaroid production were obsolete.

Since 2008, the Impossible Project has grown, having purchased the plant at Enschede and opened stores in Tokyo, Vienna and New York. They began by selling Polaroid film that had been kept in cold storage, while simultaneously re-developing Polaroid film.

Their first batch of experimental films, titled PX 100 and PX 600 Silver Shade were released in March 2010. Following these came the PX 70 Color Shade, which was the first batch of re-invented instant color film made for the popular, foldable Polaroid SX 70 camera.

This too was an experimental film however and it took The Impossible Project three years to complete the process and present PX 680 Color Shade First Flush. Their biggest accomplishment to date, PX 680, is a 600-type film, meant to work with the most generic and widespread SX70 and 600 cameras.

Polaroid, under the creative directorship of Lady Gaga, went in a different direction, focusing on bridging the digital age with printable photography, and created an instant mini-printer and a Polaroid camera with said printer attached. Neither print in the classic Polaroid style, however.

Although Fuji makes some instant film as well, the Impossible Project is the only existing manufacturer of Polaroid-type. So, to satisfy your nostalgia or make art that comes out of the camera already beautifully framed, you should head on over to the Impossible Project’s website.

PS: Do not, do NOT shake your Polaroid film. They need to be kept stable in order to develop properly. Rumor has it Polaroid sued Outkast for those lyrics.