Jack Kerouac's Personally Owned Camera, Estate Certified

A Polaroid Land Camera Model 900 Electric Eye, owned and used by Jack Kerouac. This is a Type-40 instant roll film camera made between 1960-1963 by Polaroid. This model is similar to the Model 850 except it has single-window viewfinder/rangefinder with projected frame-lines and automatic parallax compensation. The camera has fully automatic electronically controlled exposure for both the shutter and the aperture, a wink light and a separate flash. Housed in the original leather case, and accompanied by some paper documentation, and 17 Polaroid Postcarders (this allowed you to send a self-made photograph on the back of a postcard. Good used condition, with some applied black tape, untested.  Provenance: This piece will be accompanied by our Certificate of Authentication as well as an estate certification signed by John Shen-Sampas, executer of the Kerouac Estate. John Shen-Sampas is the son of John Sampas, friend and brother-in-law of Jack Kerouac, and the brother of Stella Kerouac, Jack’s wife.

Jack was known for two wonderful quotes relating to cameras both occuring while he was on the road with Robert Frank:

"How I wished I'd have had a camera of my own, a mad mental camera that could register pictorial shots, of the photographic artist himself prowling about for his ultimate shot - an epic in itself." (On the road with Robert Frank, 1958)

"It's pretty amazing to see a guy, while steering at the wheel, suddenly raise his little 300 dollar German camera with one hand and snap something that's on the move in front of him, and through an unwashed windshield at that." (On the road with Robert Frank, 1958)

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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