Art by Medium: Polaroid

Stefanie Schneider's Mini Morning Glory (Till Death Do Us Part) - 2005 featuring Daisy McCrackin signed in front, not mounted. Digital Color Photographs based on a Polaroid. Pola...

Shangri-La (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Signature label and Certificate. Artist inventory Number...

Radha Leopard Dress (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist ...

Bad Sign (The Last Picture Show) - 2005, 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist...

Waterhole - Planet of the Apes 05 - 1999 58x56cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label a...

29 Day Dreams (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist invent...

Kelly (Beachshoot) - 2005 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #1374. Not mou...

'Prom Nights' (Till Death Do Us part) - 2005 20x20cm, sold out Edition of 10, this is Artist Proof 2/2. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. a...

Gossip (Beachshoot) - 2005 40x80cm including white border. Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist I...

Kelly (Beachshoot) - 2005 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #1378. Not mou...

Jaunty (Beachshoot) - 2005 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #1401. Not m...

'Pin up' 2017, 50x50cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs Based on a Polaroid, digital C-Print, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017-198 Kir...

Flick (The Girl behind the White Picket Fence) - 2015 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Arti...

Soulshine - 2020 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-915. Not mou...

Judith (Suburbia) - 2004 20x24cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print based on a Polaroid, Signed on verso with Certificate, Artist inventory number: 1698. Not mounted. This proje...

Sundown (Bombay Beach) - 2023 50x50cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist inventory PL2023-23. ...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis Lila running down the Stairs (Stay) - featuring Naomi Watts, 2006 signed and signature brand on verso Lambda digital Color Photographs based on the Polaroi...

First Steps (Burned) - Self Portrait, 1999 98x96cm, Edition 1/10. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No 357.01. ...

Moving in Together (Till Death do us Part) - Installation - 2008 Edition of 5. 16 analog C-Prints , hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on 13 Polaroids, ...

The Girl IV (The Girl behind the White Picket Fence) - 2013 38x36cm, Edition of 10. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Archive Crystal Paper, matte surface, based...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis Long Way Home (Stranger than Paradise), 1999 Signed and signature brand on verso. Lambda digital Color Photographs based on the Polaroid. Sandwiched in be...

Star me Kitten - 2017, 50x50cm. Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, not mounted. Signature label with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017...

Roots - 2017 Edition of 7. Archival Print, based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017-151.

The way we were (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 48x58cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print print, based on the Polaroid Certificate and Signature label artist Inventory No. 9088. No...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis Long Way Home II, 2005 Signed and signature brand on verso. Lambda digital Color Photographs based on the Polaroid. Sandwiched in between Plexiglass (thic...

RANONKEL #1, 2009 [From the series Need to Be] Published in her book The Eyes of the Fox, 2018 30x40x2cm. Digital archival pigment print based on an original Polaroid on museum qual...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis '29 Day Dreams' (29 Palms, CA), 2005 signed and signature brand on verso Lambda digital Color Photographs based on the Polaroid Polaroid sized open Editio...

Fireproof - 2024 - 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. inventory PL2024-48. Not mou...

Mirage 48x60cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017-100. Not mounted. ...

Translucent (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 50x49cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Invent...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis Salt'n Sea (California Badlands) - 2010 Signed and signature brand on verso. Lambda digital Color Photographs based on the Polaroid. Sandwiched in between...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis - Desert Shores (California Badlands), 2010 Signed and signature brand on verso. Lambda digital Color Photographs based on the Polaroid. Sandwiched in be...

Another Day in Paradise (The Last Picture Show) - 1999, 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis Skywhale (Stay), 2006 signed and signature brand on verso Lambda Color Photographs based on the Polaroid. from the movie 'Stay' by Marc Forster, featur...

Stefanie Schneider's Minis 'Untitled #11' (Beachshoot) featuring Radha Mitchell, 2005 signed and signature brand on verso Lambda digital Color Photographs based on a Polaroid Polar...

Forgotten Pool (2015), Edition of 10. 50 x 50 cm. Archival Print on Canson Baryta Fiber Rag 310gr, based on a Fuji Instant Film (not mounted). Signed on back with Certificate. Cr...

Blue Water Pistol (29 Palms, CA), diptych - 1999 Edition 3/10, 67x60cm each, 67x128cm installed. 2 analog C-Prints, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroids. Mounted on...

Red Note Edition of 25 signed and numbered by the artist This still-life picture of a Music Note consists of an olive, mint leaf and a toothpick. It was shot on Polaroid Polachrome ...

Summer of 68 (The Last Picture Show) - 2000 20x20m, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Invento...

Mindscreen 12 - 1999 126x126cm with white border, Edition of 5 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label an...

Forest Haze (The Last Picture Show) - 2005, 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Art...

The Cave II - Planet of the Apes 11 - 1999 98x97cm. Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory ...

Untitled (Paradise) - 1999, 98x97cm. Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 362. N...

Margarita (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 126x125cm, Edition 1/5. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid. Mounted on Aluminum with matte UV-Protection. ...

Neon Red (The Last Picture Show) - 2005, 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist...

Déjà vu - 2020 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. Artist inventory - PL2020-881. Kir...

The Muse (29 Palms, CA) - 2009 80x79cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, artist inventory number 5804. Signature label and Certificate....

Traces - 2021 - 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2021-1024. Not mounte...

Palm Springs Palm Trees X (Californication) - 2019 78x76cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Cer...

Blue - 2017 40x31cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017-251. Not mounted. Kirst...

Nothing (Bombay Beach, CA) - 2018 20x25cm. Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on an original Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist In...

Untitled (Paradise) - 1999, 20x20cm. Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 20452. Not mounted. LIFE’S A DREAM (The Personal World of Stefanie Schneider) by Mark Gisbourne Projection is a form of apparition that is characteristic of our human nature, for what we imagine almost invariably transcends the reality of what we live. And, an apparition, as the word suggests, is quite literally ‘an appearing’, for what we appear to imagine is largely shaped by the imagination of its appearance. If this sounds tautological then so be it. But the work of Stefanie Schneider is almost invariably about chance and apparition. And, it is through the means of photography, the most apparitional of image-based media, that her pictorial narratives or photo-novels are generated. Indeed, traditional photography (as distinct from new digital technology) is literally an ‘awaiting’ for an appearance to take place, in line with the imagined image as executed in the camera and later developed in the dark room. The fact that Schneider uses out-of-date Polaroid film stock to take her pictures only intensifies the sense of their apparitional contents when they are realised. The stability comes only at such time when the images are re-shot and developed in the studio, and thereby fixed or arrested temporarily in space and time. The unpredictable and at times unstable film she adopts for her works also creates a sense of chance within the outcome that can be imagined or potentially envisaged by the artist Schneider. But this chance manifestation is a loosely controlled, or, better called existential sense of chance, that which becomes pre-disposed by the immediate circumstances of her life and the project she is undertaking at the time. Hence the choices she makes are largely open-ended choices, driven by a personal nature and disposition allowing for a second appearing of things whose eventual outcome remains undefined. And, it is the alliance of the chance-directed material apparition of Polaroid film, in turn explicitly allied to the experiences of her personal life circumstances, that provokes the potential to create Stefanie Schneider’s open-ended narratives. Therefore they are stories based on a degenerate set of conditions that are both material and human, with an inherent pessimism and a feeling for the sense of sublime ridicule being seemingly exposed. This in turn echoes and doubles the meaning of the verb ‘to expose’. To expose being embedded in the technical photographic process, just as much as it is in the narrative contents of Schneider’s photo-novel exposés. The former being the unstable point of departure, and the latter being the uncertain ends or meanings that are generated through the photographs doubled exposure. The large number of speculative theories of apparition, literally read as that which appears, and/or creative visions in filmmaking and photography are self-evident, and need not detain us here. But from the earliest inception of photography artists have been concerned with manipulated and/or chance effects, be they directed towards deceiving the viewer, or the alchemical investigations pursued by someone like Sigmar Polke. None of these are the real concern of the artist-photographer Stefanie Schneider, however, but rather she is more interested with what the chance-directed appearances in her photographs portend. For Schneider’s works are concerned with the opaque and porous contents of human relations and events, the material means are largely the mechanism to achieving and exposing the ‘ridiculous sublime’ that has come increasingly to dominate the contemporary affect(s) of our world. The uncertain conditions of today’s struggles as people attempt to relate to each other - and to themselves - are made manifest throughout her work. And, that she does this against the backdrop of the so-called ‘American Dream’, of a purportedly advanced culture that is Modern America, makes them all the more incisive and critical as acts of photographic exposure. From her earliest works of the late nineties one might be inclined to see her photographs as if they were a concerted attempt at an investigative or analytic serialisation, or, better still, a psychoanalytic dissection of the different and particular genres of American subculture. But this is to miss the point for the series though they have dates and subsequent publications remain in a certain sense unfinished. Schneider’s work has little or nothing to do with reportage as such, but with recording human culture in a state of fragmentation and slippage. And, if a photographer like Diane Arbus dealt specifically with the anomalous and peculiar that made up American suburban life, the work of Schneider touches upon the alienation of the commonplace. That is to say how the banal stereotypes of Western Americana have been emptied out, and claims as to any inherent meaning they formerly possessed have become strangely displaced. Her photographs constantly fathom the familiar, often closely connected to traditional American film genre, and make it completely unfamiliar. Of course Freud would have called this simply the unheimlich or uncanny. But here again Schneider almost never plays the role of the psychologist, or, for that matter, seeks to impart any specific meanings to the photographic contents of her images. The works possess an edited behavioural narrative (she has made choices), but there is never a sense of there being a clearly defined story. Indeed, the uncertainty of my reading here presented, acts as a caveat to the very condition that Schneider’s photographs provoke. Invariably the settings of her pictorial narratives are the South West of the United States, most often the desert and its periphery in Southern California. The desert is a not easily identifiable space, with the suburban boundaries where habitation meets the desert even more so. There are certain sub-themes common to Schneider’s work, not least that of journeying, on the road, a feeling of wandering and itinerancy, or simply aimlessness. Alongside this subsidiary structural characters continually appear, the gas station, the automobile, the motel, the highway, the revolver, logos and signage, the wasteland, the isolated train track and the trailer. If these form a loosely defined structure into which human characters and events are cast, then Schneider always remains the fulcrum and mechanism of their exposure. Sometimes using actresses, friends, her sister, colleagues or lovers, Schneider stands by to watch the chance events as they unfold. And, this is even the case when she is a participant in front of camera of her photo-novels. It is the ability to wait and throw things open to chance and to unpredictable circumstances, that marks the development of her work over the last eight years. It is the means by which random occurrences take on such a telling sense of pregnancy in her work. However, in terms of analogy the closest proximity to Schneider’s photographic work is that of film. For many of her titles derive directly from film, in photographic series like OK Corral (1999), Vegas (1999), Westworld (1999), Memorial Day (2001), Primary Colours (2001), Suburbia (2004), The Last Picture Show (2005), and in other examples. Her works also include particular images that are titled Zabriskie Point, a photograph of her sister in an orange wig. Indeed the tentative title for the present publication Stranger Than Paradise is taken from Jim Jarmusch’s film of the same title in 1984. Yet it would be dangerous to take this comparison too far, since her series 29 Palms (1999) presages the later title of a film that appeared only in 2002. What I am trying to say here is that film forms the nexus of American culture, and it is not so much that Schneider’s photographs make specific references to these films (though in some instances they do), but that in referencing them she accesses the same American culture that is being emptied out and scrutinised by her photo-novels. In short her pictorial narratives might be said to strip films of the stereotypical Hollywood tropes that many of them possess. Indeed, the films that have most inspired her are those that similarly deconstruct the same sentimental and increasingly tawdry ‘American Dream’ peddled by Hollywood. These include films like David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990) The Lost Highway (1997), John Dahl’s The Last Seduction (1994) or films like Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise with all its girl-power Bonny and Clyde-type clichés. But they serve no more than as a backdrop, a type of generic tableau from which Schneider might take human and abstracted elements, for as commercial films they are not the product of mere chance and random occurrence. Notwithstanding this observation, it is also clear that the gender deconstructions that the characters in these films so often portray, namely the active role of women possessed of a free and autonomous sexuality (even victim turned vamp), frequently find resonances within the behavioural events taking place in Schneider’s photographs and DVD sequences; the same sense of sexual autonomy that Stefanie Schneider possesses and is personally committed to. In the series 29 Palms (first begun in 1999) the two women characters Radha and Max act out a scenario that is both infantile and adolescent. Wearing brightly coloured fake wigs of yellow and orange, a parody of the blonde and the redhead, they are seemingly trailer park white trash possessing a sentimental and kitsch taste in clothes totally inappropriate to the locality. The fact that Schneider makes no judgment about this is an interesting adjunct. Indeed, the photographic projection of the images is such that the girls incline themselves to believe that they are both beautiful and desirous. However, unlike the predatory role of women in say Richard Prince’s photographs, which are simply a projection of a male fantasy onto women, Radha and Max are self-contained in their vacuous if empty trailer and motel world of the swimming pool, nail polish, and childish water pistols. Within the photographic sequence Schneider includes herself, and acts as a punctum of disruption. Why is she standing in front of an Officers’ Wives Club...

'You used to call me on my Cell Phone', 2017, Collage of 16 original Polaroids, Unique Piece. Framed and signed on verso. Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde ...

Palm Springs E-Type Abstract (Californication) - 2021 30x40cm. Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artis...

Last Splash - 2019 Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory - PL2019-816. K...

Red Shoes Dangling (29 Palms, CA) - 2007 24x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist Inventory ...

Wallflower (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 58x56cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate,...

Stefanie Schneider's Mini Gasoline (Stranger than Paradise) - 1999 signed in front, not mounted. Digital Color Photographs based on a Polaroid. Polaroid sized open Editions 1999-20...