By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
OK Corral - part 2 - (Stranger than Paradise), - 1999,
20x20 cm, Edition 5/10,
digital C-Print based on the Polaroid,
Artist Inventory 318_2.18,
Not mounted.
Stefanie Schneider's scintillating situations take place in the American West. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photographic sequences provide the ambience for loosely woven story lines and a cast of phantasmic characters.
Schneider works with the chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film stock. Chemical explosions of color spreading across the surfaces undermine the photograph's commitment to reality and induce her characters into trance-like dream scapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies Schneider's images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made - their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Schneider's images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction.
Stefanie Schneider received her MFA in Communication Design at the Folkwang Schule Essen, Germany. Her work has been shown at the Museum for Photography, Braunschweig, Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin, the Institut für Neue Medien, Frankfurt, the Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Museum für Moderne Kunst Passau, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Foto -Triennale Esslingen.
“It was Stefanie Schneider, who inspired me to start the company THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT after seeing her work, which seems to achieve the possible from the impossible, creating the finest of art out of the most basic of mediums and materials. Indeed, after that one day, I was so impressed with her photography that I realized Polaroid film could not be allowed to disappear. Being at the precise moment in time where the world was about to lose Polaroid, I seized the moment and have put all my efforts and passion into saving Polaroid film. For that, I thank Stefanie Schneider almost exclusively, who played a bigger role than anyone in saving this American symbol of photography.” –Florian Kaps, March 8th 2010 (“Doc” Dr. Florian Kaps, founder of “The Impossible Project”)
Exhibitions Selected (selected)
2018
Participation Bombay Beach Biennale, Bombay Beach, USA (G) March
Available to All, Rough Play Projects - Site Specific, Joshou Tree, USA (G) curated by Deborah Martin with Adam Berg, Doron Gazit, Kellan Barnebey, Chris Sanchez, Aili Schmelzt
2017
BLICKFELD Analoge Fotografie, Kommunale Galerie Steglitz-Zehlendorf (G) (catalog), (upcoming)
Rosegallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica (G)
Magie des Moments, Kunstverein Bad Homburg Artlantis, Bad Homburg (G)
2016
Instantdreams, Instantdreams Gallery, Berlin
(S)
2015
Desert Voices, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Pamela Littky
The Ballery in Heat, The Ballery, Berlin (G)
Blue Nudes, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G)
2014
Summer Show, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (G)
6 Finalists, Saatchi Gallery London (G)
Instantdreams, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (S)
Grand Opening, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Banksy, Andy Warhol, Alison Bignon, Sophie Dickens, Victor Gingembre and others
2013
Heather's Dream, Short, nominated for the German Short Film Award 2013 (Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis)
Images
For Images (Artists fir Tichy), GASK - Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, (G) with Richard Prince, Nan Golding, Shirana Shahbazi, Sophie Calle, Martin Kippenberger, Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Katharina Grosse, Jonathan Meese & others (catalog)
The Girl behind the White Picket Fence, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (S)
Heather's Dream, Short, German Competition Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Multimedia Presentation with Artist Stefanie Schneider, Palms Springs Art Museum, Annenberg Theater
The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, (G) with Ansel Adams, Bruce Charlesworth...
Category
1990s Contemporary Art by Medium: Polaroid
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid
