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

Stefanie Schneider
Revelation (Stage of Consciousness) - 20x24cm, starring Radha Mitchell

2007

About the Item

Revelation (Stage of Consciousness) - 2007, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs.
 Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid.
 Signature label and Certificate.
 Artist Inventory No. 6413.
 Not mounted. featuring Radha Mitchell THE GREATER THE EMPTINESS THE GRANDER THE ART – Stefan Gronert Not “Twenty-six Gasoline Stations” but “29 Palms, CA”! Forty-two years after Ed Ruscha’s legendary book, there is no gasoline station at the beginning of the book that is here at hand. Instead it is the open hearted Radha – with orange hair, pink-colored overalls and a bashful, or rather cunning, gaze that is directed downward – with which this book begins! And with her and with Max – attention: a woman –, one whose appearance is in accordance with the same styling, it comes to an end as well – after Radha has in the meantime colored her fingernails pink, again endowed with the same open heartedness and the same look which now, however, reveals in combination with her altered facial expression an “old-maidish” turning away from the viewer. This may serve as an example for a vivid and understandable transformation which flows into a large-scale representation of a cheerless settlement beneath a shining, blue sky – there a figure, lost straightaway, becomes overwhelmed. Pictures which in 1998/99 play in the harsh California sunlight or in spaces that are not exactly cozy and comfortable. “Play” is the correct word in this regard, for precisely in view of the pictures of persons, there remains more than just doubt as to whether we are looking at staged scenes or have simply happened upon the high-strung “reality” of a (wannabe) film world. Yet not all the pictures have the same character of a glaring, plastic world. Upon flipping through the pages, we also encounter unpretentious, literally “colorless” scenes in undefined interiors, or unspectacular views resembling a still life and opening out onto a nowhere land. That which connects all participants in these picture-worlds is the observation that they appear to be exhausted, lost, empty or uncertain about their existence. One is almost reminded of the empty gazes and loneliness of the protagonists in the pictures of large cities painted by Manet or Degas in the era of Early Modernism. With one exception, all the photographs which are reproduced here, which originally measure 60 by 70 cm but which here, in their present size and configuration, make productive use of the possibilities presented by the medium of the book, manifest several elements of B-movies: smoking, naked, made-up and muscular persons who are not inclined to conform entirely to the vision of Hollywood dreams. Beauty and vexation, eroticism and loneliness enter into a mixture which reveals the rift between desire and truth. From a distance, one is reminded of the “Untitled Film Stills” of Cindy Sherman, which in this regard are not nearly as drastic. Yet whereas her photos from the seventies are characterized by a cool, objective mode of representation in historicizing blackand-white, the photographs of Stefanie Schneider evince a soft, sometimes seemingly pictorial visual language with a coloration ranging from the pale to the artificial-glaring. As in many other pictures of Stefanie Schneider which often present themselves to us as sequences, these photos refer back as well to the perceptual stereotypes of film. Making use of instant photography, proceeding from which significantly enlarged C-prints come into being, her pictures summon up the impression of a narration without ultimately becoming part of a plot that is readable in a linear fashion. The illusion of the narrative element, however, simply enhances the experience of a renunciation of just this aspect. For the picture titles as well – and also the title of this publication – provide no real help with the imaginary construction of a story. Nevertheless, names return which include the first name of the artist herself: hence is everything not in fact a game but rather a series of authentic and instantaneous images, or is it after all nothing other than a staging, a game – how real is life? The paucity of plot elements, which contradicts all expectation of a cinematic style, as well as the emptiness and loneliness of the persons, enters into a peculiar, sometimes seemingly surreal association with the magic of the sun-drenched expanses of the dreamlike landscape. Just as the fantasy and imagination of the viewer are stimulated, so to the same great extent does the redemption of these visual figures of love founder on a void whose glaze is created, not least of all, by the peculiar blurriness of the photographic representation. The seemingly amateur character of these pictures, which have in no way been treated with any excessive scrupulousness, leaves us with a stimulating incertitude as to their interpretation, one in which the spheres of reality, fiction or dream are scarcely capable any longer of being differentiated. Thus the gaps and the scenic openness of what is presented ultimately set in motion a self-appraisal. So what remains after “29 Palms, CA”? Perhaps that hope which deviates from the saying of Ruscha that is quoted in the title: The stronger the photography the better the reality will be! Translated by George Frederick Takis Stefanie Schneider lives and works in the California High Desert and Berlin 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 dreamscapes. 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.

More From This Seller

View All
Treasure II - Stage of Consciousness - 29 Palms, CA, analog
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Treasure II - Stage of Consciousness (29 Palms, CA) - 2007 58x69cm, Edition 2/5. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Achive Paper, matte finish, based on t...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

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

When we were friends II (Suburbia) - Contemporary, Polaroid
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
When we were friends (Suburbia) - 2004 28x37cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label with Certificate, unmounted. The project "Suburbia" was shot...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Photography

Materials

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

Moneypenny with Beach Ball (Heavenly Falls) - Polaroid, Contemporary, Bond
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Moneypenny with Beach Ball (Heavenly Falls) - 2016 60x60cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate Artist in...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

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

Calliope (50x50cm) - Contemporary, Polaroid, 21 Century, Color, Mystical
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Calliope (Haley and the Birds) - 2013 50x50cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Not mounted. In the c...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

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

Renée's Dream XIII (Days of Heaven) - Landscape, Horse, Polaroid, 21st Century
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Renée's Dream XIII (Days of Heaven). Part of the 29 Palms, CA project - 2006 20x20cm, Edition of 10 Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist...
Category

1990s Contemporary Figurative Photography

Materials

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

Renée's Dream - The Boys (Days of Heaven) - Landscape, Horse, Boys
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Renée's Dream - The Boys (Days of Heaven). Part of the 29 Palms, CA project. - 2006, 50x50cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs, archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Signature ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Photography

Materials

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

You May Also Like

Tyler Shields - Long Weekend, Photography 2020, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Indulgence Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 15" x 20" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proofs 23" x 30" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist P...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Luster, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Pigment, A...

Tyler Shields - Lure, Photography 2015, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Sirens Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 20" x 30" 40" x 60" 48" x 72" 63" x 84" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proofs The idea behi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Luster, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Inkjet, Ar...

Tyler Shields - High heels (This is not a reflection), 2024, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Indulgence Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 18" x 18" 30" x 30" 45" x 45" 60" x 60" 70" x 70" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proofs ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography

Materials

Luster, Paper, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Arc...

Tyler Shields - Legs in the Gold Room, Photography 2024, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Indulgence Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 18" x 18" 30" x 30" 45" x 45" 60" x 60" 70" x 70" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proofs ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography

Materials

Luster, Paper, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Archival Pig...

Tyler Shields - Strawberry, Photography 2024, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Indulgence Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 18" x 18" 30" x 30" 45" x 45" 60" x 60" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proofs Tyler Shi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography

Materials

Luster, Paper, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Arc...

Tyler Shields - Red Wall Self Portrait, Photography 2020, Printed After
By Tyler Shields
Located in Greenwich, CT
Series: Suspense Chromogenic Print on Kodak Endura Luster Paper All available sizes and editions: 22.5" x 30" 30" x 40" 45" x 60" 56" x 72" 63" x 84" Editions of 3 + 2 Artist Proofs ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Luster, Paper, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print...

Recently Viewed

View All