Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2

Stefanie Schneider
Ladybird (Chicks and Chicks and sometimes Cocks)

2019

About the Item

Ladybird (Chicks and Chicks and sometimes Cocks) 2019 - Edition of 10, 20x20cm, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid Artist inventory 22256. Signature label and Certificate. Not mounted. The 'Chicks and Chicks' series is part of my Desert Living Project, which encompasses all aspects of organic living including growing your own organic food, self sustainability and regarding the beauty and personality of farm animals and their welfare in an endeavor to connect human needs back to the sources of living. The full circle of Industrialization returns to the homestead. Stefanie Schneider’s work captures the American West in a way that transcends mere documentation—it distills the mythos of the frontier into something dreamlike, deteriorating, and deeply personal. Her images evoke Ed Ruscha’s fascination with roadside Americana, Georgia O’Keeffe’s reverence for arid landscapes, and Edward Hopper’s haunting loneliness, yet they engage in a unique dialogue with history, both photographic and cultural. How did a German artist become one of the most essential voices in the visual storytelling of the American dream—and its unraveling? Born in Germany in 1968, Schneider grew up in a divided nation, where the scars of history were still visible in the landscape. This early exposure to ruptured histories and fading ideologies may explain her pull toward the abandoned edges of the American West—a land that once symbolized limitless possibility but now bears the melancholy of faded utopias. Schneider’s process begins in these liminal spaces—the parched deserts and forgotten highways of Southern California—where she photographs her subjects using expired Polaroid film. The very material of her work embodies impermanence and decay, its chemical imperfections mirroring the breakdown of memory and myth. In Berlin, she develops and enlarges her images by hand, bringing an almost cinematic post-production process to a medium often associated with instant gratification. Her role in preserving Polaroid film as an artistic medium has placed her at the forefront of a historical crossroads in photography. At a time when instant film was being phased out—a casualty of digital progress—Schneider refused to let it vanish. In doing so, she not only safeguarded a crucial chapter in photographic history but also cemented her place as one of its key narrators, treating Polaroid not as a tool of nostalgia but as a medium uniquely suited to capturing time slipping away. This tension between preservation and deterioration is central to Schneider’s work. As she told Artnet in 2014, her images are deeply personal explorations of longing, memory, and loss: "My work resembles my life: Love, lost and unrequited, leaves its mark in our lives as a senseless pain that has no place in the present." The notion of absence—whether in love, landscapes, or fading cultural dreams—haunts her work. Her subjects, often seen in desolate spaces—trailer parks, oilfields, run-down motels, and empty highways—appear disconnected, isolated even when together. The ghosts of American iconography—the road trip, the drifter, the neon-lit escape—are present, yet they flicker like echoes of a past that may never have existed as we remember it. In many ways, Schneider’s vision of the American West is a farewell letter—not to the physical place, but to the idea of it. She does not merely document a landscape; she captures the moment it dissolves, leaving behind only traces of what was. In doing so, she ensures that the story of the West, much like her Polaroid film, lingers—imperfect, beautiful, and just beyond our grasp.

More From This Seller

View All
Mermaid's Daughter (Till Death do us Part)
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Mermaid's Daughter (Till Death do us Part) - 2005, 70x85cm, Edition of 10. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

D. and Felix - Contemporary, 21st Century, Polaroid, Figurative Photography
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
D. and Felix (Stranger than Paradise) - 1997 Edition of 2/30. Image size 16 x 21.6 inch, External dimensions: 17.7 x 23.3 inch. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Mounted...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print, Polaroid, Wood, Archival Paper

Alaska (Stranger than Paradise) analog - 6 pieces
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Alaska (Stranger than Paradise) - 2002 Edition of 3/5, 105x150cm installed, 48x46 cm each. 6 Analog C-Prints, hand printed by the artist and based original 6 Polaroids. Signature...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Untitled (Oilfields) - Contemporary, Polaroid, Photograph, Analog, Enlargement
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Untitled (Oilfields) - 2004 60x60cm, Edition 2/10, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory No. 1220.0...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Daisy and Austen in front of Trailer - based on a Polaroid Original - Proof
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Daisy and Austen in front of Trailer (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 Proof b4 Printing / 128x125cm signed, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on a Polaroid, signed on...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Self-Portrait II - Mounted, Contemporary, Polaroid, Color, Portrait
By Leanne Surfleet
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Self-Portrait II, 2013, Edition 1/10. 25x25cm. Digital C-Print based on an Impossible Project SX-70. Mounted. The additional photos show this piece mounted at the Bombay Beach Bienn...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

You May Also Like

Tyler Shields - The Girl with The Red Glove, Photography 2021, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Historical Fiction Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 15" x 20" 22.5" x 30" 30" x 40" 45" x 60" 56" x 72" 63" x 84" Editions of ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Luster, Paper, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Black a...

Tyler Shields - Butterfly, Photography 2017, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Provocateur Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 15" x 20" 22.5" x 30" 45" x 60" 56" x 72" 63" x 84" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proo...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Paper, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print

Tyler Shields - Pill, Photography 2020, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Mouths Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 18" x 18" 30" x 30" 40" x 40" 60" x 60" 70" x 70" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proofs Tyl...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Luster, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print

Isabelle Van Zeijl - All For Love, Photography 2020, Printed After
By Isabelle Van Zeijl
Located in Greenwich, CT
All For Love C-print on Fuji Paper Collection: FLOWER LOVE One size: 40.5 x 40.5 Edition of 8 + 2 Artist Proofs FLOWER LOVE Roses warm you heart, they inspire us to nurture and take...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Arch...

Isabelle Van Zeijl - Revive Portrait, Photography 2020, Printed After
By Isabelle Van Zeijl
Located in Greenwich, CT
Revive Portrait C-print on Fuji Paper Collection: THE REBIRTH OF THE DUTCH FLOWER One size: 44.5 x 40.5 Edition of 8 + 2 Artist Proofs THE REBIRTH OF THE DUTCH FLOWER COLLECTION Isa...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Arch...

Isabelle Van Zeijl - Rebirth Portrait, Photography 2020, Printed After
By Isabelle Van Zeijl
Located in Greenwich, CT
Rebirth Portrait C-print on Fuji Paper Collection: THE REBIRTH OF THE DUTCH FLOWER One size: 44.5 x 40.5 Edition of 8 + 2 Artist Proofs THE REBIRTH OF THE DUTCH FLOWER COLLECTION Is...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Arch...

Recently Viewed

View All