Polaroid Photography

Wild Child (Chicks and Chicks and sometimes Cocks) - 2019 - 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid Artist inventory 22252. Signature l...

Traces of Time III (The Girl Behind the White Picket Fence) - 2013 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist Inventory #13372. Not mounted. Offered is a piece from the movie: The Girl Behind the White Picket Fence. Written and directed by Stefanie Schneider A tale told with blemished and expired Polaroid film about the hopes and dreams of a newly orphaned girl after losing her parents who lived in the Californian desert in an old travel trailer. -filmed with Polaroid film stock and Super-8 footage, overlaid with poetic voice-over monologue - this feature film creates a dynamic kaleidoscope of words and pictures, a dreamy tale that channels Terrence Malick, Gus Van Sant, and pages torn from a lonely girl's journal. (Palms Springs life magazine / Caroline Ryder) Stefanie Schneider By Caroline Ryder Travel up a bumpy dirt road in Morongo Valley, the trail strewn with rocks, and you’ll come upon a gigantic 1950s trailer in pristine condition, ringed by a white picket fence, with cottontail rabbits hopping among neat little rose bushes that bloom in spite of the broiling desert heat. Inside the trailer are period accents—a vintage radio, vintage fridge, little crocheted doilies, and dusty gilt-framed photographs. It’s a surreal home-sweet-home, an Americana fantasy as imagined by German artist and experimental filmmaker Stefanie Schneider whose work is so inspired by the desert landscape, she made it her home in 2005. “There’s a completely different light here than in Germany, a beautiful light,” says Schneider, whose property in Morongo is dotted with vintage trailers. They surround her midcentury home and serve as sets for her photoshoots or as guest lodgings for her friends from Hollywood and Berlin. “But what I really love about the desert is the desolation,” she continues. “The sense of hope for something that might or might not come. It’s easy to see our dreams projected in the desert.” Famed for shooting trailer park chic fine art photographs exclusively on vintage Polaroid film, Schneider recently completed her most ambitious project to date—a feature film made entirely of Polaroid stills (4000 images in total), the story set around her magnificent 1950s trailer. The film, called “The Girl Behind The White Picket Fence” tells the story of a broken-hearted girl who lives in the trailer. Her name is Heather, and she is played by model Heather Megan Christie, girlfriend of actor Joaquin Phoenix, and former partner of Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis, with whom she has a son. Heather stars opposite Kyle Larson (who plays ‘Hank’), a real-life gypsy fisherman who catches crab in Alaska when he’s not surfing in Southern California. Neither of the two had ever acted before, and never in the history of movie-making has a director shot a film entirely on Polaroid film. “There was great difficulty shooting a film this way,” says Schneider, who, with her long straight hair, wide innocent eyes, and thick-framed glasses, conjures an art-house Gretel. “If I had used a regular camera I would have had 36 exposures per minute, much faster and easier than using the old Polaroid camera which takes a long time to shoot one frame. Also, sometimes it doesn’t shoot at the exact moment you think it’s going to—but that’s really great because then you miss the perfect moment…and often those are the best shots.” Individually, the Polaroid photographs that comprise 29 PALMS, CA stand alone, but together and in sequence, filmed with super 8 and 16mm film stock and overlaid with poetic voice-over monologues, they create a dynamic kaleidoscope of words and pictures, a dreamy tale that channels Terrence Malick. Gus Van Sant, and pages torn from a lonely girl’s journal. The idea to shoot a movie in this way came about in 2004 when Schneider was working with leading German director Mark Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, Quantum of Solace) on his film Stay. She had met Forster at director Wim Wender’s birthday party in Hollywood. A few years later, Forster asked Schneider to shoot Polaroids of scenes from Stay as he filmed; he used those photographs for dream and memory sequences in the movie. For the first time, Schneider saw her Polaroids strung together in sequence, moving with rhythm like a flipbook, in the context of a story. When Forster urged her to consider making a feature film using that technique, the seed of 29 PALMS, CA was sown. She mentioned the idea to her good friend German actor Udo Kier, who also gave the idea a big thumbs up, and agreed to play the part of a mysterious shaman in the film. Thanks to her strong reputation in the art world and her Hollywood connections, getting talented people on board was the easy part (for a while, Charlotte Gainsbourg was pegged to play the starring role, although she pulled out two weeks before shooting commenced because she was pregnant and not fit to travel to the desert.) The hard part was finding the perfect trailer—and bringing it to the desert. “This trailer almost killed us,” says Schneider’s partner Lance Waterman, who lives and works with Schneider in Morongo Valley. After finding it on eBay, the couple drove to Utah to pick it up, the plan being to tow it all the way back to the high desert themselves. Bad idea. “We were driving down a hill with this enormous trailer behind us when we realized that if we wanted to stop, there would be no way to do so without the trailer crushing us,” says Waterman. Adds Schneider: “Lance was even giving me instructions on how to jump out of the truck if we needed to.” Thankfully the road leveled and as soon as they were able to slow down and pull over, they called a professional towing company, which transported the trailer the remaining distance to Morongo Valley. Filming took place in Spring 2011 and 2012. Schneider recently submitted the film to major film festivals in Europe and the US, and it will be broadcast in 2013 by leading German television channel, Arte. While Schneider may come from a long tradition of photographers-turned-filmmakers—Stanley Kubrick started out as a photographer, as did Ken Russell (Tommy, Women in Love) and Larry Clark, who was a controversial fine art photographer before directing smash hit Kids—she does not see her future in Hollywood, directing blockbusters. Not necessarily. “I don’t think I want to make more films,” she says. “The actors were saying they would love to work with me again, and were asking if I would like to make other movies. But being on movie sets is far too stressful, and at least with this, I was in complete power of what was going on creatively. That said, if this gets a lot of acclaims…we can always think again. One should never say never.” Film features original soundtrack with songs by Adam Weiss, Daisy McCrackin, Billy Harvey, Sophie Huber, Zoe Bicat, Max Sharam, Cheyenne Randall...

Untitled (Traintracks) - The last Picture Show - 2004 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artis...

Lerici '25 is an original black and white Polaroid photograph captured on SX-70 film along the Ligurian coastline of Italy. The image is part of a limited edition of 20, hand-signed ...

Sleeping Beauties II (Till Death Do Us Part) - 2005 Including Stefanie Schneider's new monograph "A Half Forgotten Dream" signed. 192 pages, hardcover, published by Snap Collective,...

Saigon - 2003 50x49cm. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Artist inventory Number 463. Signature label and Certificate. This piece has been used by the RED HOT C...

House behind Highway Wall (Vegas) - 2000 Edition 3/10, 44x59cm. Analog C-Print, hand-printed and enlarged by the artist, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. ...

Radha Screaming (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 58x57cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and si...

Trickle (Stage of Consciousness) - 2007 50x49cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. Artist In...

Light Blue Lingerie - however - (Wastelands) - 2003 57x56cm, Edition 4/5, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on a Polaroid, Artist inventory Number 1179.04. Signature label and Certificate. Not mounted. For sale is a piece from the Wastelands series. Schneider harnesses the unpredictable chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film, where bursts of color erupt across the surface, destabilizing the photograph's traditional allegiance to reality. These vivid distortions draw her characters into ethereal, trance-like dreamscapes. Like fleeting sequences from a vintage road movie, Schneider’s images shimmer with a transitory quality, dissolving before any definitive conclusions can be drawn. Their ephemeral essence is conveyed through subtle gestures and enigmatic motives. Refusing to yield to the constraints of reality, Schneider’s work keeps alive a delicate interplay of dream, desire, fact, and fiction, blurring the boundaries between them with poetic ambiguity. Stefanie Schneider’s work echoes the heart of American art, channeling the cinematic nostalgia of Ed Ruscha’s roadscapes, the stark sensuality of Georgia O’Keeffe’s deserts, and the haunting solitude of Edward Hopper...

'Ryan Gossling' (Stay) - 2006, 20x20cm, Edition of 2/10, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid Certificate and Signature label artist Inventory No. 2447.02 Not mounted. Stefanie Schneider: Torsten Scheid, “Fotografie, Kunst, Kino. Revisited.”, FilmDienst 3/2006, page 11-13

 Photography Art Cinema. Revisited Stay expands a traditional connection through new facets Interwoven between the media of photography and film is a veritable mesh-work of technical, motific, metaphorical and personal interrelationships. Extending from photo-film which, as in La Jetée by Chris Marker (France, 1962) is a montage of single, unmoving photographs all the way to the portrayal of photographic motifs in Hollywood cinema―most recently in Memento (USA, 2000) and One hour photo (USA, 2002)―is the range of filmic-photographic interactions on the one hand, and from the adaption of modes of cinematic production to the imitation of film stills on the other. For instance, with the legendary Untitled Film Stills (1978) of the American artist Cindy Sherman, who later made her debut as a film director with Office Killer (USA, 1997) and thereby, like many others, changed sides: Wim Wenders, Robert Frank and Larry Clark are doubtlessly the most successful of these photographic-filmic border crossers. This brief survey provides only a vague indication of the dimensions of this intermedial field, which in fact extends much further and is constantly being cultivated. Also as a motif in film, photography has experienced a historical transformation: Photographers were once considered to be technicians who mastered a craft but never achieved the status of artists. Photographer-figures were caught in the allure of beautiful appearance, incapable of penetrating to the actual essence of things. Such depth was reserved for literature or painting. When photography in film touched upon the sphere of art, then most often as its contrasting model, as the metaphor for a superficial access to the world. Coming to mind are Fred Astaire as a singing fashion photographer in Stanley Donen’s musical film Funny Face (USA, 1957), or the restless lifestyle-photographer in Michelangelo Antonioni’s genre-classic Blow up (GB, 1966). For the doubting Thomas, only that exists which can be photographed. He ultimately enters the world of fantasy and thereby the field of art only unwillingly, when he becomes entangled in the world of his images. The last of his detail-enlargements shows only the photographic grain and has lost all connection to reality. The photograph looks as if it had been painted by Bill, the painter who is both friend and antagonist to the protagonist.

 Photography as Art It was first around the end of the last century that numerous filmmakers discovered photography as a genuine art form. In The Bridges of Madison County (USA, 1995) a sensitive Clint Eastwood stands, camera in hand, on the threshold of artistic status, and in Smoke (USA, 1994) a tobacco merchant ripens into a philosopher through his involvement in photography. Finally, in John Water’s parody of the art market, Pecker (USA, 1998), a provincial tom-fool is hyped into celebrated stardom amid the New York art scene because of his blurred snapshots. This film about a postmodern Kaspar Hauser in photographic art (with clear parallels to Richard Billingham, the British shooting star of the nineteen-nineties), not only takes into account the exponentially expanded significance of photography in the art market, but also attributes to photography an extreme degree of conformity to the “operating system” of the visual arts. This admittedly ironic equation of photography and the visual arts is new. It is repeated with much more earnestness in Lisa Chollondencko’s High Art (USA) from the same year. Artistic photography has finally become established in a cinematic context.

 
Stay Stay (USA, 2005) could have fitted in seamlessly here. Considering that the films High Art and Pecker establish photography as an ideal art form at the end of the millennium, director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland) takes a step backward; he revives an anti-technical, intuitive concept of art, including the customary clichés about madness and genius. This choice documents less an anachronistic notion of art (especially considering that painting is currently experiencing a Renaissance) than instead the appraisal that paintings are more suitable for representing the free objectification of the mind. Stay is not an artist-film but rather a psycho-thriller in which the borders between dream and reality become blurred.
 The psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) has saved his girlfriend, the artist Lila (played by Naomi Watts) from committing suicide. Now he is attempting to keep another patient, the art student Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling...

Kirsten Red Lips 114x142 cm, Edition 1/3, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artists, based on the Polaroid. Mounted on Aluminum with matte UV-Protection. Certificate and Sign...

Cheeky - 2019 50x50cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs Based on a Polaroid, digital C-Print, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL219-660. Kir...

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

Burning Bright - The Getaway (The Last Picture Show) - 1999 50x50cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Artist Inventory #2116...

'On Hold' (The Girl behind the White Picket Fence) - 2013 98x97cm, Edition of 5, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid Certificate and Signature label a...

Today's Heros (Suburbia) - 2004 20x24cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print based on a Polaroid, Not mounted, Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 330.01. Stefani...

Four Corners II (The Last Picture Show) - 2005 - triptych Edition 1/5, 58x57cm each, 58x181cm installed including gaps. 3 Analog C-Prints, hand-printed by the artist on Archive Fuji...

Lerici '25 is an original black and white Polaroid photograph captured on SX-70 film along the Ligurian coastline of Italy. The image is part of a limited edition of 20, hand-signed ...

Max by the Pool (29 Palms, CA) - 1999, 20x20cm, Edition of 10, archival C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist inventory number: 614. Not mounted. Schneider harnesses the unpredictable chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film, where bursts of color erupt across the surface, destabilizing the photograph's traditional allegiance to reality. These vivid distortions draw her characters into ethereal, trance-like dreamscapes. Like fleeting sequences from a vintage road movie, Schneider’s images shimmer with a transitory quality, dissolving before any definitive conclusions can be drawn. Their ephemeral essence is conveyed through subtle gestures and enigmatic motives. Refusing to yield to the constraints of reality, Schneider’s work keeps alive a delicate interplay of dream, desire, fact, and fiction, blurring the boundaries between them with poetic ambiguity. Stefanie Schneider’s work echoes the heart of American art, channeling the cinematic nostalgia of Ed Ruscha’s roadscapes, the stark sensuality of Georgia O’Keeffe’s deserts, and the haunting solitude of Edward Hopper...

Good Times (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:...

Gaëlle, Summer 2020 40 x 32 cm, Edition 4 of 10 + 2 Artist Proofs. Photograph printed in Hanemühle Baryta Photo Rag 340gr, based on a Fuji Instant Film original (not mounted). ...

Fountain Head (Stay) - 2006 featuring Ryan Gosling 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory # 5248 Not...

Brooklyn Bridge (Stay) - 2006 Edition of 5, 100x135cm installed, each piece is 30x29cm, 12 analog C-Prints, printed by the artist on Fuji Archive Crystal Paper, matte surface, b...

Felix with Knife (California Blue Screen) - 1997 114x142cm, Edition 1/3. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature l...

Haley and the Bird Man (Haley and the Birds) - 2013 from the 29 Palms, CA Project 4 pieces 70x90cm installed, 30x40cm each. Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs,. 4 archival C-Prin...

Henry (Stay) - 2006 featuring Ryan Gosling 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory # 5248 Not mounted...

It's over! (Till Death do us Part) - 2008 20x24cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist...

My Girl (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #92...

Hand signed, dated and inscribed Polaroid photograph of Nancy Graves, dated September 24, 1980, depicting the artist with her iconic sculpture Shaman. Provenance: Collection of Jim W...

Radha at Fence (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 featuring Radha Mitchell 60x58cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed and enlarged by the artist, based on the Po...

Childhood Memories (Stay) - 2006 - featuring Ryan Gosling- Polaroid 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inv...

Fabien (The Last Picture Show) triptych - 2005, 30x30cm each, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. 3 Archival C-Prints, based on the three original Polaroids. Certificate and sign...

Just ok (High Desert) - 2019 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory # 22192 Not mounted. Stefanie ...

'Notre Dame 3' 2010, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs, archival Pigment Print, based on a Polaroid 810 transfer process, 27.3x20cm, not mounted, Signed, embossed stamp and artist c...

It's gonna be ok (Till Death do us Part) - 2008 40x48cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inve...

Leaving (Sidewinder) - 2005, 128x127cm, Edition 2/3. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certifi...

Horizonte (Journey to the Center of the Earth) - 2019 Edition of 10. Photograph printed in Canson Barita Fiber Rag 340gr, based on a reclaimed Fuji Instant Film Negative (not mount...

Nipple - Bathtime IV (29 Palms, CA) 1999, 40x40cm, Edition 1/10, Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist inventory ...

Time stopped (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 20x24cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory No. 9303. N...

Cherry Tree Blossoms (Till Death Do Us Part), 80x78cm, Edition 1/5, Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. ...

Long Way Home (Stranger than Paradise) - 1999, 3 x 58x56cm, installed 58x180cm, (sold out Edition of 10), this is THE last Artist Proof 3/3. 3 Analog C-Prints, hand-printed by th...

Leaving (Sidewinder), triptych - 2005, Edition 2/5, 38x37cm each, (installed with gaps 38x125cm). 3 Analog C-Prints, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, bas...

Levitate (Bombay all Day) 2019 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist ...

'Paperback Writer' (Bombay Beach) 2019, 20x20cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist ...

Yellow Flower (The Last Picture Show) - 2005 128x125cm, Edition of 5, analog C-Print, based on the Polaroid, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper. (matte) Ar...

Gas station at Night I (Stranger than Paradise) - 2006 Edition 1/5, 48x46 each, 93x91cm installed with gaps. 4 analog C-Prints, hand-printed by the artist, based on the 4 Polaroid...

Angel View (Memories of Green) - 2003 Edition 2/5 , 58x56cm, analog C-Print, hand-printed and enlarged by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on the Polaroid, Artist...

Radha Mind Screen (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 128x125cm, Edition 5/5, Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper Based on the Polaroid, Certificate and Si...

Untitled (Cowboys and Angels) - 2005 39x50cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. artist Inventory No...

Spare Parts (29 Palms, CA) -1999 48x46cm, Edition of 5/10. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid, Artist inventory 320. Signature label and Certificate...

Melancholy (Haley and the Birds) - 2013 50x49cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory ...

Prepping the Birth (Suburbia) - 2004 20x24cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print based on the Polaroid, Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 1672. Not mounted, In ...

There is no solution (Till Death do us Part) - 2008 20x24cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print print, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory No. 8565, Not mounted. On offer is a piece from the movie: Till Death do Us part Stefanie Schneider’s Till Death...

Sorry for the reflection on the plexi. In the early 1980s, the Polaroid Foundation invited Hungarian-born painter and photographer György Kepes (1906-2001) to use the 20x24 Polaroid ...

Radha Mitchell on the Set of 'The Crazies'' - 2009 24x30cm Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature Label and Certificate. Artist inventory 11678. not moun...

Springtime (Paris) - 1995 / quadriptych - 4 pieces, 110x130cm installed. Edition of 5, each 50x60cm including white borders. 4 analog C-Prints, hand-printed by the artist and bas...

Boccia VIII (Beachshoot) - 2005 30,7x30cm, sold out Edition of 68, Artist Proof 4/5 Lambda Print, based on a Polaroid Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory # 1467. Not...

Copper Penny Sunday School (Sidewinder) 2005, Edition of 4/5, 125x154cm. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid. Signed on back. artist Inventory No. 3...

Planes I - 2008 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory #4656. Not mounted. S...