Stefanie Schneider

Lonesome (Suburbia) - Contemporary, Polaroid, Analog, Color, Photography

2004

Angie (Suburbia) - 2004, 20x25cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory No. 1697. Not mounted. The project "Suburbia" was shot on the set of Marc Forster's first feature film 'Everything put Together' with Radha Mitchell, Michelle Hicks, Megan Mullally, Catherine Lloyd Burns, Matt Malloy and others. Suburbs collectively, or the people who live in them Suburb { a district, especially a residential one, on the edge of a city or large town } synonyms [Outer edge , Fringes, Periphery, Limits, Outer reaches, Environs ] Sunday in suburbia, a summer's day heavy with heat, hardly a soul to be seen. As a result, the motifs of Stefanie Schneider's “Suburbia” cycle – put together in California, in the very west of the USA – are virtually inconspicuous.Schneider's camera encircles an idyllic American setting, capturing a garden practically empty of people. Surrounded by a white picket fence, flowers and trees bloom profusely in the blazing sunlight. The day is empty and quiet like only a Sunday can be. The grass is perfectly cut, the garden well tended, the inhabitants oblivious to everything and lethargic. An instant is seized, revealing the tragedy of an average, unsuccessful, middle class life. The scene is familiar from countless movies and American literature; the perfect façade of an American ideal, which seems to conceal the horror of daily life. In David Lynch's „Blue Velvet“ the film begins with the camera rolling over a similar setting: the view over the fence, the painstakingly neatly cut lawn, ending with a close-up: a cut-off ear covered with feasting ants. Stefanie Schneider overdoes it, she exaggerates: this is confirmed by the irritating colourfulness as well as the vehemence of the motifs. Emptiness stands in stark contrast to the beauty of the blooming roses or the lush growth of the trees. The fenced, idyllic summer scene appears vacant; unused chairs surround a table, the grill untouched and clean, no object out of place. It is only the inhabitants who appear curiously lost. Schneider shows them in the middle of their saturated lives, in well-tended averageness, which can only be endured with a Martini on ice, on hand before lunch. In her opinion the scenes are banal, yet one becomes witness to great intimacy. Schneider's „Suburbia“ cycle lives from the interplay of the motifs, and tells a story with the same flavour as American author Raymond Carver...

You See Me (Suburbia) - 2004 20x24cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label with Certificate. Ar...

Set of polaroid photographs by Miquel Arnal. In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserving a beautiful patina. Material: Photographic paper ...

'Illuminations started in 2002 when a relationship was slowly falling apart. While trying to save it, we rented a large stylish apartment in Stockholm, and then later one in Arles, France, hoping that a change of scene would have a posi-tive effect. The new spaces made the distance between us more acute, and the inevitable break even more obvious. The ritual of making one photograph each night became crucial to me. I left the camera shutter open for 3 to 8 hours in a darkened bedroom, and as the morning light arrived I interrupted the exposure. It is a private journal, documenting time and memory, where present meets past.' Born in Vienna to Swedish and Greek parents and raised in Stockholm, Florence Montmare has an MBA in Design Management from Linnaeus University, Sweden and studied at the School of Visual Arts. A graduate of International Center of Photography, New York, she collaborated with artist Sam Samore...