Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer · Public domain

Edwin Land invented instant photography, unveiling the Polaroid camera in 1948 after concluding, on a family vacation, that a photograph should be visible within minutes rather than sent off for developing. He also devised inexpensive filters for polarizing light that became standard in sunglasses and camera lenses, and formulated the retinex theory of how the eye perceives color under changing light. Land received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was elected a fellow of Britain's Royal Society despite holding no doctorate.