Horizontal Photography

Silver Gelatine Print by Erich Andres, 1947. Andres was born 1905 in Germany and passed away 1992. He started his career as a photographer in 1920. He was one of the first photograph...

11 x 14 inch image is an edition of 45. Four other sizes are available. Mina Afshari was born in Tehran, Iran. Her life and art are shaped by her journey from oppression to freedom....

A unique original silver gelatin black and white photograph was shot by Press Agency Trampus. Paris, carriages, and cars, circa 1930. Features: Original silver gelatin print photogra...

Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition 1 of 25. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is p...

MICHAEL CHILDERS Andy Warhol in his New York studio, 1976 Photographic print Printed in 2007 Signed boldly on the front in black felt tip pen by photographer Michael Childers Frame included: in the original frame as donated by the photographer to the Palm Springs Art Museum This is one of a series of portraits of Andy Warhol by Michael Childers, founding photographer of Warhol's Interview and After Dark magazines, taken in his New York studio and Paris from 1976-1980. This work is signed on the front and framed. It was acquired from the Palm Springs Art Museum, where it was donated by the artist. The verso of the frame bears the works title, original year in felt tip marker, and the artist's studio stamp with copyright of 2007 (year printed) Another example of this work was exhibited at the Palm Springs Art Museum and a different example is part of the Michael Childers collection at the Las Vegas Art Museum Measurements: Artwork (visible): 7 x 9 7/8 inches Frame: 12 x 15 x .4 inches Michael Childers Biography: Since the 1960s, Michael Childers has been photographing famous people...

Nymph - 2021 - 20x24cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2021-1059. Not mounted...

Warhol and Basquiat, 1982 by Christopher Makos is an 8 x 10in vintage gelatin silver print on fiber paper of downtown New York celebrity artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The photograph is stamped (black ink) on verso (photo back). Provenance: Private Collector *** Artist’s Bio: Christopher Makos (1948- ) is an American photographer and visual artist. He studied architecture in Paris and was an apprentice to Man Ray. Andy Warhol was Makos' good friend and frequent portrait subject. His photographs of Andy Warhol have been exhibited in galleries and museums, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao,Tate Modern in London, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, IVAM in Valencia (Spain), Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, among others. Makos’ pictures have appeared in publications, including Paris Match and the Wall Street Journal. The visual artist is the author of numerous books, such as Warhol/Makos In Context (2007), Andy Warhol China...

Fine art print of Elvis Presley from the collection of acclaimed photographer. Lynn Goldsmith, taken in 1960 These prints are open edition and come with full certification. Availab...

Photographed by fellow astronaut Alan Bean, NASA Apollo 12 astronaut and commander Pete Conrad Jr poses with the American flag after he and Bean planted it o...

11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of American Ballet Theatre dancer Stephan Jan-Hoff photographed nude, 1967. Signed on the verso by Jack Mitchell. Comes directly from the J...

Vintage silver print Western Photography Guild studio stamp in purple ink, verso Numbered "N14-4" in purple ink, verso Also inscribed in pencil, v...

In 2015 I visited many ancient olive groves in Italy. The Province of Lecce is known for having the oldest trees. The groves, only accessible by stone paths or mule tracks, give a se...

Early sepia-toned landscape photograph of Popocatepetl, a large mountain peak in central Mexico. The work highlights a donkey staged in the foreground with the mountain standing in t...

'Orange Poppies No.2' Analogue colour floral photography. London, United Kingdom 2024. Limited edition of 20. Printed on the finest archival Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper, these lim...

Men with the Tenderest Flesh Are Made of Marble 1984, printed 1992 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in ink, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 5) 6 x 9 inches (15.2 x 22.9 ...

The photography of Carla van de Puttelaar allows the eye to touch the skin on many different levels. Through her lens, she makes the viewer aware of the sensitivity and the sensualit...

Actor Girl II (Stage of Consciousness) - 2008 including Stefanie Schneider's new monograph "A Half Forgotten Dream" signed. 192 pages, hardcover, published by Snap Collective, 2024....

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Wrapped Reichstag (I) (German Parliament, Blue Sky) Color Photograph on Archival Paper Year: 1995 Size: 11.81 x 15.74 inches (30 x 40 cm) Photographer: Wolf...

'Morning. Noon. Night' part of the series 'A girl called N.' 2019, 19x25cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and...

Voyeurism for Playboy is a black and white photograph realized by Helmut Newton. Black and white photograph. From the series "Voyeurism " realized by Newton for Playboy magazine.

'Porto Venere No.3' Lerici, Italy 2024 Limited edition of 20. Printed on Hahnemühle photo rag Baryta 308 Gsm fine art paper, these limited edition photographs are designed to with...

Mystery of Love (Chicks and Chicks and sometimes Cocks) - 2017 20x24cm, Edition of 10. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Artist inventory 21300. Signature label and Certific...

New moon rising- 2021 - 20x24cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2021-1021. No...

Out of reach - 2020 20x25cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-975. Not moun...

Contemporary food still life photograph of bread with assorted vegetables on a wood table Archival pigment print, ed. of 25 Image size: 11 x 14 inches ...

Spencer Tracy & Deborah Kerr Edward, My Son Black & White Photograph on Photographic Paper Year: 1949 Size: 6.5 x 8 inches (16.51 x 20.32 cm) Stamped verso Publisher: Metro-Goldwyn-...

Born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter was 39th president of the United States (1977-81) and served as the nation's chief executive during a time of serious proble...

Car crash at Woodhead is a black and white vintage photo, realized in 1962. The photo depicts a car that falls into a ravine at Woodhead, Cheshire. Mr. John Henry Jones, Labour Memb...

Are you with me - 2021 - 20x25cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2021-1051. ...

Color photography printed in high quality on matte photographic paper. The dimensions are 30 x 45 cm. Claudia Ferreiro (Santiago de Compostela, 1996) explores memory and identity l...

The Kate Series, 2002 by Leonard Freed came as a welcome reprieve near the end of Freed's life before which time the photographer tackled social-documentary subjects for which he bec...

The other side of love - 2020 20x25cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-955...

This print is currently featured in our exhibition, Warm Regards, and will be available to ship after the show closes June 24th, 2017. Pentti Sammallahti is a benchmark figure in co...

Untitled Flower # 132 Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte Paper with Epson archival quality ink Edition of 25 Available sizes: 11" x 14” 20" x 24” 30" x 30” 30" x 40” 40" x 40" 48" x 48” 48" ...

Leaving (Strange Love) - 2005 20x30cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a 35mm film. Signature label and certificate. Not mounted. In an age of in...

Leaving (Strange Love) - 2005 20x30cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a 35mm film. Signature label and certificate. Not mounted. “I never remembe...

Buddy and Baddy is a black and white vintage photo, realized in 1951. The photo depicts Buddy and Baddy, Swiss funny-mem of the ice, on their first American tour with the all-new Ic...

Coolidge Dam, Arizona Gelatin silver print, (1938), printed later, circa 1980 Unsigned A lifetime printing by Brett Weston, supervised by his father Edward Edition of 5 or 6 examples...

Kristine DeBell is a  vintage photo, realized by Helmut Newton in the 1970s. The artwork represent fashion model and actress in 1970s. 

Kate #4, 2002 by American photographer Leonard Freed is in the photographer's series "Kate." This is an 11" x 14" gelatin silver photograph signed verso (back of photo) by the Freed ...

11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of Trisha Brown and Lance Grier performing 'Set and Reset', 1987. Signed by Jack Mitchell on the print verso. C...

This vintage silver gelatin print is signed in pencil on the mount beneath the image. Printed in 1950 in an edition of 100 numbered copies and 5 presentation copies; this print is fr...

11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of Bejart Ballet dancer Jorge Donn, 1979. Signed by Jack Mitchell on the print verso. Comes directly from the Jac...

11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of Harkness Ballet principal dancers Roderick Drew and Richard Wolf performing, 1966. Comes directly from the ...

Tussle (The Princess and her Lover) - 2009 including Stefanie Schneider's new monograph "A Half Forgotten Dream" signed. 192 pages, hardcover, published by Snap Collective, 2024. ...

Oil Fields #27, Bakersfield, California 2004 Signed and numbered, verso Chromogenic print (Edition of 100) 8 x 10 inches (20.3 x 25.4 cm) This work is of...

I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new series inspired by Rembrandt’s nudes. His incredible drawings and etchings show not only amazing technique and individuality, but also a sublime mastery of light, shadow and composition. His strong light-dark contrasts and his bold compositions, engaging costumes and draperies, resulted in powerful visual images. His models, portrayed from life, with their own personalities and bodies, not adjusted to fashion and ideals, were striking in their day, and have remained so into the present. Rembrandt’s nudes inspired me to create new works in which I have been able to capture magical moments in new works of art. The explosion of creativity has resulted in a large body of work which I call The Rembrandt Series...

NASA Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard stands by the US flag on the moon with the shadow of Edgar D. Mitchell, module pilot, taking the picture. This is an 8" x 10" vintage chromoge...

Alitalia - Historical Photos - New York is a vintage photograph realized in the 1970s. This photo belongs to a precious testament album of Italian airline. Good conditions.

Roy Dean (1925-20020. Male Nude Study, ca. 1975-80. Original period print with artist studio stamp on verso. Print measures 5.25 x 9 inches; 13 x 17 inches fr...

Ritual - 2020 20x25cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-974. Not mounted. ...

11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of twin brothers Jay and Jed Johnson photographed for 'After Dark' magazine on June 8, 1970. Comes dire...

Richard Sadler's "Young Boy" is a haunting portrait of a very serious young British lad amidst a crowd of other people. He is dressed very formally in hat, coat and tie. He clutche...

"The Beauty of the Uncommon Tools" is from Tony Chirinos' project entitled, "The Precipice", - also released as a book project by Gnomic Book in 2021 - which serves as a photographic...

Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro the iconic nude portrait taken during the photo session for After Dark magazine, 1970, shortly after starring in Andy Warhol's 'Trash'. Vintage 11 x ...

My own private Travel Diary - Bishop, CA - Autumn - 2001, 20x29cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid Slide. Signature label and Certificate. 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, 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 has 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? Why is Schneider not similarly attired? Is there a proximity to an army camp, are these would-be Lolita(s) Rahda and Max wives or American marine groupies, and where is the centre and focus of their identity? It is the ambiguity of personal involvement that is set up by Schneider which deliberately makes problematic any clear sense of narrative construction. The strangely virulent colours of the bleached-out girls stand in marked contrast to Schneider’s own anodyne sense of self-image. Is she identifying with the contents or directing the scenario? With this series, perhaps, more than any other, Schneider creates a feeling of a world that has some degree of symbolic order. For example the girls stand or squat by a dirt road, posing the question as to their sexual and personal status. Following the 29 Palms series, Schneider will trust herself increasingly by diminishing the sense of a staged environment. The events to come will tell you both everything and nothing, reveal and obfuscate, point towards and simultaneously away from any clearly definable meaning. If for example we compare 29 Palms to say Hitchhiker (2005), and where the sexual contents are made overtly explicit, we do not find the same sense of simulated identity. It is the itinerant coming together of two characters Daisy and Austen, who meet on the road and subsequently share a trailer together. Presented in a sequential DVD and still format, we become party to a would-be relationship of sorts. No information is given as to the background or social origins, or even any reasons as to why these two women should be attracted to each other. Is it acted out? Are they real life experiences? They are women who are sexually free in expressing themselves. But while the initial engagement with the subject is orchestrated by Schneider, and the edited outcome determined by the artist, beyond that we have little information with which to construct a story. The events are commonplace, edgy and uncertain, but the viewer is left to decide as to what they might mean as a narrative. The disaggregated emotions of the work are made evident, the game or role playing, the transitory fantasies palpable, and yet at the same time everything is insubstantial and might fall apart at any moment. The characters relate but they do not present a relationship in any meaningful sense. Or, if they do, it is one driven the coincidental juxtaposition of random emotions. Should there be an intended syntax it is one that has been stripped of the power to grammatically structure what is being experienced. And, this seems to be the central point of the work, the emptying out not only of a particular American way of life, but the suggestion that the grounds upon which it was once predicated are no longer possible. The photo-novel Hitchhiker is porous and the culture of the seventies which it might be said to homage is no longer sustainable. Not without coincidence, perhaps, the decade that was the last ubiquitous age of Polaroid film. In the numerous photographic series, some twenty or so, that occur between 29 Palms and Hitchhiker, Schneider has immersed herself and scrutinised many aspects of suburban, peripheral, and scrubland America. Her characters, including herself, are never at the centre of cultural affairs. Such eccentricities as they might possess are all derived from what could be called their adjacent status to the dominant culture of America. In fact her works are often sated with references to the sentimental sub-strata that underpin so much of American daily life. It is the same whether it is flower gardens and household accoutrements of her photo-series Suburbia (2004), or the transitional and environmental conditions depicted in The Last Picture Show (2005). The artist’s use of sentimental song titles, often adapted to accompany individual images within a series by Schneider, show her awareness of America’s close relationship between popular film and music. For example the song ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’, becomes Leaving in a Jet Plane as part of The Last Picture Show series, while the literalism of the plane in the sky is shown in one element of this diptych, but juxtaposed to a blonde-wigged figure first seen in 29 Palms. This indicates that every potential narrative element is open to continual reallocation in what amounts to a story without end. And, the interchangeable nature of the images, like a dream, is the state of both a pictorial and affective flux that is the underlying theme pervading Schneider’s photo-narratives. For dream is a site of yearning or longing, either to be with or without, a human pursuit of a restless but uncertain alternative to our daily reality. The scenarios that Schneider sets up nonetheless have to be initiated by the artist. And, this might be best understood by looking at her three recent DVD sequenced photo-novels, Reneé’s Dream and Sidewinder (2005). We have already considered the other called Hitchhiker. In the case of Sidewinder the scenario was created by internet where she met J.D. Rudometkin, an ex-theologian, who agreed to her idea to live with her for five weeks in the scrubland dessert environment of Southern California. The dynamics and unfolding of their relationship, both sexually and emotionally, became the primary subject matter of this series of photographs. The relative isolation and their close proximity, the interactive tensions, conflicts and submissions, are thus recorded to reveal the day-to-day evolution of their relationship. That a time limit was set on this relation-based experiment was not the least important aspect of the project. The text and music accompanying the DVD were written by the American Rudometkin, who speaks poetically of “Torn Stevie. Scars from the weapon to her toes an accidental act of God her father said. On Vaness at California.” The mix of hip reverie and fantasy-based language of his text, echoes the chaotic unfolding of their daily life in this period, and is evident in the almost sun-bleached Polaroid images like Whisky Dance, where the two abandon themselves to the frenetic circumstances of the moment. Thus Sidewinder, a euphemism for both a missile and a rattlesnake, hints at the libidinal and emotional dangers that were risked by Schneider and Rudometkin. Perhaps, more than any other of her photo-novels it was the most spontaneous and immediate, since Schneider’s direct participation mitigated against and narrowed down the space between her life and the art work. The explicit and open character of their relationship at this time (though they have remained friends), opens up the question as the biographical role Schneider plays in all her work. She both makes and directs the work while simultaneously dwelling within the artistic processes as they unfold. Hence she is both author and character, conceiving the frame within which things will take place, and yet subject to the same unpredictable outcomes that emerge in the process. In Reneé’s Dream, issues of role reversal take place as the cowgirl on her horse undermines the male stereotype of Richard Prince’s ‘Marlboro Country’. This photo-work along with several others by Schneider, continue to undermine the focus of the male gaze, for her women are increasingly autonomous and subversive. They challenge the male role of sexual predator, often taking the lead and undermining masculine role play, trading on male fears that their desires can be so easily attained. That she does this by working through archetypal male conventions of American culture, is not the least of the accomplishments in her work. What we are confronted with frequently is of an idyll turned sour, the filmic clichés that Hollywood and American television dramas have promoted for fifty years. The citing of this in the Romantic West, where so many of the male clichés were generated, only adds to the diminishing sense of substance once attributed to these iconic American fabrications. And, that she is able to do this through photographic images rather than film, undercuts the dominance espoused by time-based film. Film feigns to be seamless though we know it is not. Film operates with a story board and setting in which scenes are elaborately arranged and pre-planned. Schneider has thus been able to generate a genre of fragmentary events, the assemblage of a story without a storyboard. But these post-narratological stories require another component, and that component is the viewer who must bring their own interpretation as to what is taking place. If this can be considered the upside of her work, the downside is that she never positions herself by giving a personal opinion as to the events that are taking place in her photographs. But, perhaps, this is nothing more than her use of the operation of chance dictates. I began this essay by speaking about the apparitional contents of Stefanie Schneider’s pictorial narratives, and meant at that time the literal and chance-directed ‘appearing’ qualities of her photographs. Perhaps, at this moment we should also think of the metaphoric contents of the word apparition. There is certainly a spectre-like quality also, a ghostly uncertainty about many of the human experiences found in her subject matter. Is it that the subculture of the American Dream, or the way of life Schneider has chosen to record, has in turn become also the phantom of it former self? Are these empty and fragmented scenarios a mirror of what has become of contemporary America? There is certainly some affection for their contents on the part of the artist, but it is somehow tainted with pessimism and the impossibility of sustainable human relations, with the dissolute and commercial distractions of America today. Whether this is the way it is, or, at least, the way it is perceived by Schneider is hard to assess. There is a bleak lassitude about so many of her characters. But then again the artist has so inured herself into this context over a long protracted period that the boundaries between the events and happenings photographed, and the personal life of Stefanie Schneider, have become similarly opaque. Is it the diagnosis of a condition, or just a recording of a phenomenon? Only the viewer can decide this question. For the status of Schneider’s certain sense of uncertainty is, perhaps, the only truth we may ever know.

1 Kerry Brougher (ed.), Art and Film Since 1945: Hall of Mirrors, ex. cat., The Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, 1996) 2 Im Reich der Phantome: Fotographie des Unsichtbaren, ex. cat., Städtisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach/Kunsthalle Krems/FotomuseumWinterthur, (Ostfildern-Ruit, 1997) 3 Photoworks: When Pictures Vanish – Sigmar Polke, Museum of Contemporary Art (Zürich-Berlin-New York, 1995) 4 Slavoj Žižek, The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, Seattle, Occasional Papers, no. 1, 2000. 5 Diane Arbus, eds. Doon Arbus, and Marvin Israel...

Instructor (Suburbia) 2004, 20x24cm, Edition of 1/10, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, not mounted, Signed on verso with Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 1680.01. This proje...

Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, and photographer who became First Lady of the United States as the wife of P...