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Stefanie SchneiderTropics Motor Motel II (Memories of Green)1999
1999
About the Item
Tropics Motor Motel II (Memories of Green) – 1999
Edition 1/10
58x56 cm
Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on the Polaroid
Artist inventory number: 337.01
Unmounted
Stefanie Schneider: A German View of the American West
Stefanie Schneider’s photography evokes the iconic American landscape through the eyes of a German-born artist, drawing from the profound cultural explorations of Ed Ruscha, the vivid desert landscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe, and the profound solitude found in Edward Hopper's paintings. How, then, did this German photographer come to be one of the most significant figures in the American visual narrative of the late 20th and 21st centuries?
Born in Cuxhaven, Germany, in 1968, Schneider divides her time between Berlin and Los Angeles, but her creative heart beats strongest in the American West. The arid deserts and open plains of Southern California provide the backdrop for her evocative photographs. It is here that Schneider captures her subjects on expired Polaroid film, later developing and enlarging the images by hand in her Berlin studio.
The most striking feature of Schneider’s work is the haunting color palette created by the expired Polaroids, which imbue her images with an ethereal, almost surreal quality. As Polaroid film faded into obsolescence, Schneider’s commitment to this medium earned her both respect and admiration from critics and contemporaries. Her preservation of a medium in decline has become a signature aspect of her artistry, breathing new life into a photographic tradition tied to American iconography.
At the heart of Schneider’s work is a theme of preservation and decay—both visual and emotional. In a 2014 interview with Artnet, she shared, “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.” Schneider’s photographs often feature solitary figures in desolate, apocalyptic settings: sun-bleached trailer parks, barren oilfields, empty motels, and uninhabited beaches. These backdrops convey a powerful sense of “absence”—a theme that permeates her work and which she describes as the driving force behind her art.
Schneider’s American journey unfolds through the lens of the Polaroid, with each image acting as a piece of an ongoing narrative about love, communication, sexuality, and relationships. Her use of expired Polaroid film introduces a kind of chemical unpredictability, where vibrant, surreal bursts of color splatter across the surface, upending the photo’s claim to objective reality. These chemical "explosions" induce her characters into a kind of dreamlike trance, blurring the line between the tangible and the intangible.
Her work calls to mind the flickering sequences of road movies, where the image evaporates before a clear conclusion can be reached. The ephemerality of her photographs captures the uncertainty of modern existence, refusing to settle into fixed definitions of reality, desire, or truth. Through this lens, Schneider explores the fragmented relationship between medium, viewer, and the stories told—where each viewer is invited to participate in the creation of meaning.
The notion of wabi-sabi, the Japanese appreciation of beauty in imperfection, runs through Schneider’s body of work. She embraces the “flaws,” the gaps, and the distortions—intentionally using expired film to expose the unknown. These missing fragments of the image ask the viewer to engage actively with the photograph, filling in the blanks with their own memories, desires, or interpretations. The act of filling in the gaps is personal and subjective, transforming the viewer and artist into a shared experience, bound by limitless potential. The absence becomes an invitation for introspection, where the boundaries between artist, image, and observer dissolve.
Schneider's work doesn’t simply capture moments—it invites us into a space of uncertainty, a realm of continuous transformation where the story remains unfinished and open to endless interpretations. It is within this fluidity, this ever-present sense of absence, that the true power of her art lies.
- Creator:Stefanie Schneider (1968, German)
- Creation Year:1999
- Dimensions:Height: 22.84 in (58 cm)Width: 22.05 in (56 cm)Depth: 0.04 in (1 mm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Morongo Valley, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU652315949502
Stefanie Schneider
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., Bombay Beach Biennale 2018, 2019.
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